Jenn took a deep breath, if not for the fact this irritating thing was a demon, she would have slapped it silly. She really didn’t want to put up with this creature. “Demon, you will stay, and you will be watched every moment you are here. You will have no opportunity for mischief.”
“Miss Chief? Who’s she? Never met the lass. Although” Tizzy peered towards the hold, “if she does happen to be a goer, and she’s hiding somewhere on board, well... I can certainly do the... thing.” The demon leered again.
Jenn rubbed her forehead. “You know what I mean, demon.”
Tizzy tilted his head. “You’re sure?” It asked. Jenn simply nodded. “Really really sure?” Jenn nodded again. “So, would you say, you are asking me to stay?”
“I am telling you to stay, demon.” Jenn said tiredly.
“You know you can’t stop me from going?” Jenn sighed, the demon was right. She nodded, reluctantly. “So you are asking me to stay?”
“Yes.” Jenn said through gritted teeth.
Tizzy crossed his four arms, tilted his nose up towards the sky and tapped his foot. “You didn’t say the magic wo... ord.”
Jenn’s eyes stretched wider. “The—magic—word?” Jenn snarled.
“You know. The P word.” The demon locked its lips together in a small grin, rocking its head slightly back and forth.
Jenn closed her eyes. Why her? “Please. Stay.”
“Well, OK” the demon said suddenly. “But only because you begged me.” The demon smiled broadly. “I’m sure we’re going to be great friends.”
Chapter 59
“An inquiry? Like my word isn’t good enough. Like the obvious hole in the ground where my castle was, the remains of Exagas’ army aren’t enough?” Lenamare slammed the door to his recently furnished study’s door. He and Jehenna were just returning from the first of what looked to be several council sessions regarding the dispute. Jehenna had preceded Lenamare into the room. She seated herself in one of the chairs in front of the desk while Lenamare raved on.
Jehenna looked around the room. It wasn’t much. Cheap furniture, uncomfortable furniture if the truth were to be known. Unfortunately, while they both had suites in Freehold, they’d never stayed in them for any length of time, teleporting in and out as needed. For this reason they’d never bothered to completely furnish their suites.
The bookshelves had a few books on them. The books she and Lenamare had recovered yesterday when they teleported back to the ambush site. They’d have done it earlier, but so many other things had to be arranged. Fortunately, all the valuable stuff had been protected from the elements by spells. Their main spell books were safely cached away elsewhere, in a small extra dimensional space. They should have put ‘the book’ there. However, given its nature, they hadn’t wanted to put it in any place so potentially accessible to extra-planar beings. Not that there were a whole lot of such people, only that those most likely to be interested in the book were intrinsically extra-planar. At least the room had a window.
If they were to stay for long in Freehold, they would have to find much better furnishings. However, neither of them wanted to be in such close proximity to the busy bodies on the council; so a completely new location was going to be required. A new school perhaps. Maybe not though, maybe it was time for a more private life. Jehenna didn’t relish the thought of having to gather together a whole new set of brats. Most of the old ones were a lost cause. The only ones accounted for were the ones with Trisfelt. They were the next worst thing to all new students. Of course, all of this presupposed they lived through the current situation.
Actually, if they did live through it, that meant, almost by definition that they got the book back. If Exador got it, they wouldn’t live through it. Of course, if Lenamare and she got it, Exador wouldn’t live through it. Further, if they got the book back, that meant private life or new school were meaningless. If they got it back, they’d eventually get it open, then they’d have power. The sort of power to carve out, or repossess existing, empires. Ruling an empire didn’t count as having a private life, Jehanna supposed. Too many demands on the ruler, still they were demands Jehenna would be willing to put up with.
The worst-case scenario, Jehenna supposed, was that this fiasco drag out for a long time. Which was part of what was giving Lenamare grief right now. Not that it was completely unexpected grief. “As I understand it,” Jehenna interrupted Lenamare in his tirade, “an inquiry is standard procedure in such claims.”
“I know. I expected one in fact. That doesn’t mean I have to like it.” Lenamare resumed pacing, one of his favorite habits. “In one sense, it does give us time. Time to find that book. On the other hand, it gives Exacretin time to look for it as well. Assuming he knows its missing.
“On the other hand,” Lenamare continued, “an inquiry increases the chance that Damien or one of his fellow councilors will figure out what is going on. And finally, as you know, it slows our most recent plans for taking the rug out from under Exatoad. I’ve decided, however, to have Zilquar hold his position. The inquisition is going out to the school. Naturally, both Exafiend and I will be going along. Since he’ll have his army, or what remains of it, there, I feel I’ll need an army too.” Lenamare stopped.
“I wonder if Damien will be taking any people with him?” Lenamare asked himself. Damien was leading the inquiry. He wanted to inspect the site personally. “Such individuals might get in the way if there was a confrontation. We should certainly plan for all eventualities.”
“Is a confrontation wise?” Jehenna queried. “We didn’t fare too well in the last one.”
“Neither! I will point out, did Exador.” Lenamare raised his index finger above his head to emphasize the point, as if lecturing to a class. “Things are a lot more even now. Or at least they would be. If I could find that damn fourth order demon.”
“Do you suppose Exador took it out of the picture for good?”
“Destroyed it?” Lenamare started pacing again. Jehenna figured the cheap carpet wouldn’t last a week. “Possible, but doubtful. Destruction of such beings is extremely difficult. While certainly something like a Cloud of Disintegration would take it out, there isn’t much below that that can.”
“So it’s still on this plane?” She and Lenamare had tried twice more to summon the demon since their first failed attempt.
“Apparently. Or it’s being shielded.”
“By an archdemon? Nothing less could shield it.”
“I know, thus we’d better pray to whatever gods will still listen to us that it’s still on this plane. If archdemons are involved, we really are doomed. At least until we get the book back. At that point, archdemons better start running scared.”
“So, if it is running around, it’s got to be killing things. Eventually we’ll hear about it. Random demon infestations aren’t that common.” Jehenna commented.
“Eventually is the key. It takes time, such information travels way too slowly. So, maybe the inquiry is for the best. It gives us that time. As long as Exaslime doesn’t pull any tricks during the inquiry. For that we must be prepared.”
“You’ve got good communications to Hortwell?”
“Yes, we’ve got mirrors on both ends. Zilquar is almost as good at preparing for things as I am.” Jehenna raised her eyebrows, that statement was high praise from Lenamare. “I’ll arrange some things with him later today. The inquiry is still gathering other documentation. The site visit won’t be for a couple days.”