“Visions?”
“Yes, the Visions came about a month before this incident. Visions of major plots by the Lords of the Abyss, and by human wizards.”
“Confirmation for something then.”
“Yes. As near as the brother could pinpoint, the Asltanian side of the activity would take place on this continent.” Barabus gestured to the floor.
“So, you think then that the Princes are up to something? They haven’t dared anything in over a thousand years.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know if any princes are involved. It may just be something at the Archaedemon level. Some plot to overthrow the current establishment there. There, except for the involvement of human wizards. Apparently, there is also a power play going on here in Astlan. Perhaps some wizards are aligned with the demons, or possibly opposed.” Barabus shook his head in frustration at their lack of concrete intelligence.
“We do know,” Barabus continued, “that a book is involved.”
“A book? What’s in it?”
“A very old book. We do not however, know what’s in it. However, we do know that several demons have been destroyed for it and more than a few wizards over the course of the years.”
“Interesting. And you’re sure that this Archaedemon has come this way?”
Barabus leaned against the table, crossing his arms and looking down at the floor. “We don’t know about the Archaedemon. It apparently left its pets in Gizzor Del for some reason. It will apparently meet them in Freehold. What we do know, is that Verigas’ wizards and one of the demons arrived in Hoggensforth yesterday. We interviewed the captain of the ship that brought them.”
“You’ve intercepted them?”
“Not yet, we believe they’re taking the road for Freehold. They aren’t that far ahead, and we waited for your arrival before pursuing.”
“Why are they traveling in this manner, can we assume the wizards are not very powerful?”
“I don’t know why they’re traveling this way. At least one of the wizards, apparently the lead one, is extremely powerful. Certainly world class. Although, even there, we have discrepancies.”
“Discrepancies?’
“Yes the captain claims the one in charge is a Lord Edwyrd.” Talarius shrugged his head; the name was unknown to him. “However, Verigas claims that the one named Edwyrd, at least in Gizzor Del, was claiming to be the cousin of the youngest member of the party. Said member either being an incredibly young wizard or a drug-clouded future human sacrifice.”
Talarius shook his head in puzzlement. Barabus continued, “So, Verigas says that this Edwyrd showed up after the Archaedemon disappeared. From all he could gather, this young man, Edwyrd, was a complete innocent. This however does not at all jibe with what the crew told us.”
“Really?”
“According to the crew, they were attacked by pirates, and, while for a short time, this Edwyrd allowed the other wizards to battle the pirate ship. Eventually they were overcome by an extremely powerful group of wizards on the pirate ship. At this point Edwyrd took a hand and single-handedly blew the entire pirate ship to dust and slew several very powerful wizards in the same blow.”
“This doesn’t add up.” Talarius said, puzzled. “Why would a pirate ship have powerful wizards?”
“I know, I asked myself the same question. The only thing I can come up with is that they weren’t pirates.”
“Who were they then?”
“The opposing wizards, perhaps.” Barabus suggested. “Trying to intercept the Archaedemon’s minions?”
“You said another demon came with the ship, why didn’t it fight the pirates?”
“Apparently it came later, after the battle. It went away some place in Gizzor Del and then came back. Verigas confirms that a demon of this description left immediately upon arriving in Gizzor Del. That, however, also adds to the Edwyrd mystery.”
“Yes?”
“Apparently, when the demon came back, the other wizards tried to deal with it, not incredibly successfully; the crew didn’t hear what was said. Then this Lord Edwyrd showed up on deck, and convinced the demon to do its bidding. Further it was Lord Edwyrd that assured the crew that the demon would not harm them, that it was under his control.”
“Obviously, this Lord Edwyrd fellow is not what he pretended to be to Verigas.”
“Not at all what he appeared. My guess is that he is actually the Archaedemon’s chief mortal agent. Naturally, such a demon would want the best possible human ally.”
“There is,” Talarius said frowning seriously, “another possibility.” Talarius was very grim at this point.
“What?”
“Given the timing of the departure and arrival of the Archaedemon and this Edwyrd, this ‘Lord Edwyrd’ could be the Archaedemon in disguise.” Talarius was looking as fierce and grim as Barabus had ever seen him.
Barabus was stunned by the possibility. He’d never thought of such a thing being possible. “Is that possible? Can Archaedemons do that?”
“I don’t know.” Talarius began to pace. “I won’t put it past them. We haven’t had an Archaedemon on this plane in nearly a thousand years.”
“Holy Tiernon, if one could do it, others could do it, could already have done it.” Barabus was suddenly chilled to the bone.
Talarius was nodding his head. “Certainly. The most dangerous evil is that which you cannot detect until it is too late. Sometimes, evil doesn’t look like evil.” Barabus almost thought he detected a small hesitation from the knight, as if remembering something. “We know that short of the demon princes themselves, the Archaedemons are the most sublime and terrible forces of evil in the world. If eternal evil can attain the guise of mortal man, then surely an Archaedemon could do it.”
“These demons could be all over the place and we’d never know it!” Barabus exclaimed.
“I think not. It must not be easy for the servants of evil to do this. If they had so easily infiltrated our midst on such a scale previously, we’d have already lost the battle.”
“But if they can do this, why haven’t they done it before?”
“The gods. What ultimately keeps the powers of the Abyss in check anyway? The gods. Our Lord Tiernon in particular.”
“But,” Barabus argued, “If the gods can stop the demons, why aren’t they doing so now?”
Talarius smiled, a smile quite genuine, yet one that Barabus found incredibly chilling when combined with the knight’s next words. “What makes you think they aren’t? Why do you think we’re here?”
Chapter 61
Trisfelt gently cracked the reins on the ponies to get them to move a little more swiftly over some rough terrain. As the wagon bounced along, he glanced back at his charges. The three of them were playing a game with their fingers. Shears, vellum and rock it looked like. Things were at last on a slightly even keel again.
For a while, things had been rather hectic. Their sudden departure from the wagon train had left the kids frightened out of their wits and crying. The slight nausea that often came with abrupt teleportation didn’t help matters. He’d taken them to the place he’d known best, after the school, his own home town. His brother and wife still had a cottage there.
He and his three students had imposed themselves for a few days while the children got rested and calmed down. Trisfelt admitted that the rest had done him good as well. The rest had given the children a chance to return their lives to some sense of normalcy. It had also given Trisfelt the opportunity to enchant a small hand mirror so he could contact Lenamare.
After contacting Lenamare and getting some information on the state of affairs, he and Lenamare had been able to work out a plan to get the children to Freehold. Trisfelt had felt just too uncomfortable with his memories of Freehold to risk taking the children on what was essentially a blind jump. If it had just been himself, he wouldn’t have minded. For one thing, jumping by oneself was a lot easier and safer than taking a group of people.