At the Gates of Darkness Part 20

CHAPTER FIFTEEN - Strategy.

PUG SIGNALLED FOR SILENCE.

Kaspar, one time Duke of Olasko and now General of the Army and First Advisor to the Maharaja of Muboya said, 'Pug has asked me to take over conducting this next bit of business.

'As I understand it from what Sandreena saw,' he nodded to the newly minted Mother-Bishop of the Order of the Shield of the Weak, 'and what Kendra said about his captivity, we have two tasks.

'The first is to gain intelligence, which has to take precedence over any other consideration. The second will be to effect a rescue. Sandreena, explain how, if you please.'

'If any guard or worker wears a talisman around his neck marked with something like a red wolf's skull on a black background, they are under some mystic control. They are compelled to attack anyone not wearing the same device.' She looked around the room. 'When I struggled with Kendra, he regained his own volition as soon as I tore it off him. My suggestion is we find sentries, overpower them and then free them. They are not being fed or rested well it seems, so it should not be too difficult.'

Kaspar continued. 'They can help us, if they're up to it, if not, we shall direct them up the trail to the abandoned Keshian fortress and from there arrange safe transportation back to their homes.' He looked at two young magicians, Jason and Akeem and said, 'You stay at that fortress and coordinate getting the wretches safely away.'

'This is not a military adventure, and while it may sound like a raid, it is not. If we are there longer than an hour, we are dead,' said Kaspar. 'The switchback trail prevents a fast a.s.sault, so we will approach stealthily, and if we have to leave in a hurry-' He nodded to Pug.

'Each of us will carry a transportation sphere, set to bring you back here.'

From the corner of the room a voice said, 'I count eight of us going down there, Kaspar. That's either too many or two few.'

Kaspar smiled, 'Jim, I wondered where you were lurking.'

Out of the shadows stepped the head of the Kingdom's intelligence service; he wore a black cloak over dark grey tunic and trousers. 'Too many, or too few.'

'That's why we will split into two groups.' Kaspar pointed to Pug. 'Pug, along with Gulamendis, Amirantha and Brandos, will investigate the device, and try to discern it's magical purpose, a.s.suming there is one and it's not just a monument to demonic vanity.

'I will take Sandreena to scout out the military aspects of the place, with Magnus to provide any magical aid we might need. Feel free to join either group.'

'I think I'll tag along with you, Kaspar.' He grinned. 'Keeps the groups even.'

'Wise,' said the former Duke of Olasko. 'Given that there is little time difference between here and the valley, we leave at sundown. Get something to eat, some rest, and meet out in the courtyard just before the sun sets.'

Laromendis entered the room as the group disbanded, and came to stand before Pug. 'Tomas says he will travel to E'bar and speak with the Regent Lord,' he said.

Pug studied the elf's face and said, 'And...?'

Surprised that the human could detect the subtleties of elven expression, Laromendis said, 'I hold little hope you'll get any cooperation from the Regent's Meet. They're handpicked to agree with him. If the demons come, he will not help; he'll just order us to dig in and look for another escape route while the rest of you fight them.'

Pug nodded. 'Will you go back?'

Laromendis paused, thinking, then said, 'They think my brother and I are dead; it might serve all our causes if they continued to think that for a while longer. I will stay here with Gulamendis if you will accept me.'

Pug nodded. 'Talk to your brother about tonight's expedition; I wouldn't mind you along to look for things the rest of us might not see.'

Laromendis said, 'Of course,' and went to where his brother still sat.

Magnus came to stand next to his father and whispered, 'What are we expecting to see down there?'

'Nothing I can imagine, and I can imagine a lot, my son. Let's get something to eat then rest a little. I have a feeling it may be a very long night.' The two magicians left the meeting room.

Amirantha sat alone on the steps leading into the keep. It was late afternoon and he had just eaten. Sunset was an hour or more away, but he didn't feel the need for rest. He instead tried to keep his mind calm as he contemplated what they were to investigate in a few hours.

After the wet cold weather and series of storms, the sunshine had been a welcome respite, a balmy hint of the spring and summer to come. Amirantha felt a deep mix of antic.i.p.ation, the idea of discovery, the risks. It had been easy to throw in his lot with this bunch, the mad magicians and happy warriors who served an abstracted greater good.

Then he had watched Miranda die.

He had seen death before, had lost those for whom he cared, but his coping mechanism had always hinged on the fact that they had always been fated to die before him. He realized with bitter self-loathing that this had been a facile att.i.tude, no reason why he shouldn't care. In Miranda he had come to know a woman of stunning abilities, magic knowledge that rivalled Pug's and dwarfed his own. Moreover, she had been long-lived, older than he by a century, despite looking no older than middle-aged. She could have expected another century or more, yet she died suddenly in a brutal and b.l.o.o.d.y fashion before those around her could help.

Nothing else in his life had made Amirantha more aware of the fragility of life than that instant. None of them, not Pug, Magnus, himself or the other magic users of considerable ability, could have reacted quickly enough to keep her alive. It was like watching someone drown as you stood helpless on the sh.o.r.e.

The memory left a sick feeling in the warlock's stomach that had lingered. It had been a year since the event, and he still felt as if he should have been able to do something, for he was the warlock, he was the master of demons.

A stirring caused him to turn, and he saw Sandreena standing behind him. He started to rise, and she pushed his shoulder, forcing him back down. Trying to regain his poise, he said, 'If you're going to hit me again, please don't. I'm really very tired of picking myself up off the floor.'

She smiled a sad smile and softly said, 'Sorry. You bring out the worst in me.'

He tilted his head slightly, and said, 'It's a gift.'

She surprised him by sitting down next to him. 'I've given some thought to this situation.'

He was about to ask which situation she meant, the need to scout the demon site once more, her elevation to high office, or them finding themselves together, but in a rare attack of wisdom, he said nothing. 'Really?' he said, in as neutral a tone as he could imagine.

'You find that surprising?' she asked, her tone accusing.

He tried to remain even-toned. 'I don't find it surprising that you think about things, but rather that you'd speak of them to me.'

'Really?' she echoed, her tone very confrontational.

He knew he was rapidly losing any hope of having a civil conversation. In the time they had spent together he had found her a perplexing combination of keen intellect and impulsive behaviour that bordered on reckless. Her order taught that quick evaluation was sometimes necessary in determining which side of a conflict to join, but the lesson seemed to have denuded her ability to take a moment and consider. He just nodded.

'I have been known to give consideration to weighty matters,' she said, her eyes narrowing and her tone rising. 'I only came to speak with you because despite the fact you are a horrible excuse for a man, you still know more of demon lore than anyone else I've met. Besides, Magnus told me of your discovery in Queg and I need to know what you uncovered about the creatures we face.'

Amirantha studied her face for a moment, unsure what exactly she expected of him; he decided his best course was to take her statement at face value. 'Do you want to know what we've uncovered about demons in general or what we think about the bunch we're going to go face down in Kesh?'

'I've seen the ones we're facing in Kesh personally, remember,' she retorted with her eyes narrowing in anger. 'Brandos says you and the elf have come up with all manner of new ideas about demons and that you're so giddy from it, you're barely able to contain yourself.'

Amirantha looked pained at the thought of being portrayed as 'giddy.' 'Brandos tends to colourful characterization at times. In any event, what we've found is, if accurate, a completely different perspective on what is known as the "Fifth Circle" of h.e.l.l.

'Demon summoners like Gulamendis and myself are selftaught, although occasionally we meet others with whom we can share our knowledge. In Queg I found a...book, for lack of a better word, but it's more than that. It's a comprehensive examination of the Fifth Circle. The author was often viewed as a madman, and the work a fabrication to thrill a rich patron or terrify the gullible, but both Gulamendis and myself find the work credible.'

'Why?' asked Sandreena, setting aside her personal ire towards Amirantha for the moment in favour of genuine interest in what he had to say.

'The first thing I noticed was the demon stench; the book reeks of them. Whoever scribed this work did so in the presence of demons.' He got a faraway look and said, 'It's almost as if the demon recited the facts and the scribe simply wrote them down. The other thing is, what he said about familiar demon lore was both accurate and...' He looked at her. 'You are aware that I have, in my time, engineered a number of ploys to separate the gullible from their gold. A weakness of a bad confidence is to overstate things; while his work is sensational in scope and depth of subject, it is not overly grandiose. If anything, it's a little dull and academic.'

'Or exceptionally clever in execution,' said Sandreena.

'But toward what end? It's one thing to convince some minor baron that a demon is running around his woodlands, and that for a small price you'll spare the villagers from having their children devoured. It's quite another to spend years writing this tome, and then what? Sell it? No, the author was earnest.'

'What does it contain that will help us?' asked Sandreena, now genuinely interested.

'Our experience with demons appears to have only touched a portion of their population. There are many details I will skip, but here's one: Demons when summoned must be confined, else they run amok, or flee into dark places and hide, waiting for their opportunity to venture forth, then run. That's the difference between the powerful demons and the clever ones. Occasionally, we find a clever one with some talent for magic; they are especially difficult.

'Gulamendis and I have skills which can confine a demon's choices when summoned. They are called into a circle of power that limits their ability to move without our permission. When I summon one, it must become subject to my will or I return it to the demon realm. If it becomes my servant, then I can give it permission to leave the confines of the circle.'

'To terrorize villagers so you can part the gullible baron from his gold?' Amirantha nodded. 'Or perhaps put on a fetching visage and climb into your bed?'

Amirantha closed his eyes for a second, then said, 'I will not tell you I am sorry one more time, Sandreena. I did what I did and you have continued to punish me for it every time we meet. Enough!' His tone was sharp, but not loud. 'Dalthea is...You bury three lovers over a century and see if you find the idea of comfort from an immortal become appealing.'

'Three?' said Sandreena. 'You never said-'

'And you never asked.' He looked her in the eyes. 'I thought of us as strangers who chanced to meet in a village with the improbable name of Yellow Mule, and we both sought a moment's comfort for the body and the heart. I was a travelling mountebank and you were the serious young knight trying to do some great good in the world. I thought it but a pa.s.sing thing, not what it turned out to be; I never meant to hurt you.'

'You lied to me!'

'I lie!' he retorted. 'That's what charlatans do. We lie. We cheat. We act on our own best interest.'

'Then what brings you here?' she said, her eyes bright with emotion.

He let out a long sigh, leaning one arm on the step above him and his shoulders sagged. 'Honestly, I don't know. I look at the grey in Brandos's hair and realize that if he doesn't get killed in a brawl first, I will bury another person I love in ten, or twenty years. And then there's Samantha...I'm over a hundred years your senior, Sandreena. I was an old man when your grandmother was a baby. For all I know, I might have bedded her. I need to be something more than a confidence trickster, a liar and cheat. I need to do something bigger than myself.' He let his voice fall. 'I thought I might stay with others like me for a while. Pug is older than I, as was Miranda.

'When I saw her killed, I realized that no matter how long or short our lives are to be, we must do something with them.' He shrugged and gave her a sad smile. 'That's when I decided to stay and help.'

She studied his face and remained silent then finally said, 'Tell me about these demons.'

He realized that in some way she had just forgiven him, or at least agreed to forget how he wronged her. What that meant was unclear, but at least he could turn his attention to the matter at hand.

'The demons that we conjure are from the outer precinct of h.e.l.l, a region of sheer chaos and confusion, where life is a nonstop struggle for dominance.

'Think of the Fifth Circle as a disc, and the rim the outer precincts, the closer you get to the centre the more organized it gets.' He paused. 'It's hard to describe, because if I make it sound as if demon kind resembles us in any way, I'd be giving you a false comparison.

'They have a high king, whose name is not known, but who reigns over other kings. The king we knew as Maarg has almost certainly gone, but his legend maintains a semblance of order to that outer precinct.

'He may have been replaced by Dahun, the demon my brother and his mad followers seem to worship, or perhaps Dahun's the ruler of a different region of h.e.l.l.

'There are a thousand more questions than answers, but two have come to the fore: why are the demons fighting among themselves, and how can some of them exist in this realm without magical protection?'

Sandreena said, 'I thought the act of summoning gave them the protection they required?'

'Yes, the circle of confinement is also a circle of protection and when they bow to our will, we protect them from succ.u.mbing to this environment. But what of those demons we didn't summon?

'Pug told me of the demon he faced, who replaced the Emerald Queen-'

Sandreena interrupted. 'The Temple has long had dealings with demon possessions, Amirantha.'

'Yes, discorporate demon spirits, but they are simply another lesser type of demon, a minor creature of the mind that can take over a weak individual. But even that tenure is brief.

'But the demon Jakan didn't possess the Emerald Queen; he killed her and took her place, with a conjured likeness that even those closest to her couldn't penetrate.'

'Impressive.'

'Laromendis is considered a great conjurer among the Star Elves and he says he could not do this. Who was this Jakan? A weak spirit demon that preyed on weak souls until it had the strength to do what it did? Or was it something else?'

'You love questions, don't you?' She spoke softly and there was a resignation in her voice.

He smiled. 'And you always seek answers.'

There was a faint smile, then suddenly her eyes narrowed and the moment was gone. 'Demons,' she insisted.

Amirantha stood up and said, 'It's easier if I show you.'

She followed him to the keep and they pa.s.sed the kitchen workers preparing a meal for those who hadn't eaten already. Brandos and his wife sat in the corner holding hands and saying nothing, her head resting on his shoulder. Samantha had seen him off to enough battles to know that there was nothing to say, so they enjoyed their last moments together in silence.

Amirantha led Sandreena up the stairs of the tower, to the room that had been set aside for his use. There they found Gulamendis reading the volume avidly. He looked up and smiled, the first openly friendly and genuinely excited expression either of them had seen from the elf.

'This is amazing!' he said. 'Every time I read it, I find new things to wonder over.'

Amirantha said, 'If you don't mind, why don't you explain to Sandreena why this book is important?'

'First, it is genuine,' said the elf. He slowly reached out and said, 'Give me your hand.' He gently placed it on the book and she instantly s.n.a.t.c.hed it back. 'Demon,' she said. 'I can feel it.'

Like a delighted child, Gulamendis asked, 'Where to begin?'

Amirantha asked, 'Did you make any sense of that battle you and your brother witnessed on Telesan?'

'I think so,' said Gulamendis. 'It would probably be better if I showed you.'

He opened the back cover, laying it flat on the desk. He carefully unfolded the last page, until the map was revealed, four times the size of a normal page. The map had been drawn in a vivid style, ill.u.s.trations of demons of all stripe were painted in garish coloured inks along the edges, with small narratives below each drawing telling something about that creature.

But Sandreena was instantly taken with the map itself, for it showed a ma.s.sive disc, divided into two circles, outer and inner, with the centre circle being divided into further segments. 'This outer circle is where we have plied our craft,' he said to Sandreena, while he pointed at Amirantha. 'The beings we summon from here are similar to those you have faced in your travels. The author of this work calls them the "lesser infernals".'

'Lesser?' Sandreena shook her head in disbelief. 'I've confronted some very big and nasty demons in my time.'

Gulamendis nodded slightly and said, 'As have we all. No, lesser doesn't mean strength or magic power, I am certain. It's about organization, or rather a lack of organization. It's a demon eat demon realm.'

Sandreena put her hand near the map, just outside the border and said, 'What's here, beyond the edge.'

Gulamendis looked annoyed at the interruption, but it was Amirantha who spoke. 'The Fifth Circle is no more a disc than it is a circle. It's a region, and I'm sure it has boundaries, but what's beyond those boundaries...? The void perhaps, or some other realm we do not know of, or maybe it is the boundary of the Fourth circle or the Sixth. In any event, it is this realm with which we are concerned, o' seeker of answers.' The last was said in a friendly manner, but Sandreena's dark look told the warlock she wasn't in the mood for banter.

'May I continue?' asked the elf.

'Please,' said Amirantha before Sandreena could ask another question.

'It's within this inner realm that all our answers lie.' His finger moved around on the vellum and he said, 'It appears that chaos is part of the demonic nature, but at least in the inner circle-the circle of the greater infernals-some form of order has emerged over ages. These areas, what the author calls "cantons", are each ruled by a demon lord, a self-anointed king, arch duke, or some other like t.i.tle.'

'Like Maarg?' asked Sandreena, having heard from Pug about the demon king's corpse found on the Saaur world of Shila.