“Two hundred demons?” Edwyrd said, unbelieving. Tizzy made a motion indicating a lot more than that. He’d really have to start trying to make improvements to Edwyrd’s eyes so he could see things like he could in his true form. He couldn’t believe he’d missed them all.
“Yeah, and that’s just the little ones.” Tizzy said. “Didn’t mention those bigger ones.”
“Bigger ones? How much bigger ones?” Edwyrd asked suspiciously.
Rupert wandered down the dark corridor. He had told everyone that he was going back to his room to read, and he had been. He’d just had a better idea while en route to his room. He’d gotten to thinking about what a big fortress this place was. From everything he’d read, such places usually had dungeons to torture prisoners in and store treasure and other valuable things. He’d wondered if this fortress had a dungeon.
As he came across a stairwell leading down, he’d decided to find out. Thus a spur of the moment excursion had turned into three hours of wandering deeper and deeper into the bowls of the palace. It was rather exciting really. He simply took every downward bound stairwell or stairs that he could find. Occasionally he’d hit a dead end and have to go back up and then down some other set, but eventually he’d gotten quite deep.
He could tell he was quite deep because the walls had gotten quite cool to touch and he didn’t encounter any more windows. He also didn’t see much in the way of people. In fact he hadn’t seen anyone in the last half hour or so. The other thing was that the halls were lit by torches, and these had become scarcer as he went. In fact it had gotten quite dark between torches.
So that he didn’t trip over anything, Rupert allowed his eyes to shift slightly. Like he had in the Abyss, this let him see fine in the dark. Actually, having done this, he noted that periodically there were other light spots, besides the torches that he hadn’t seen before. Some were floating in the hallway and some seemed to come through cracks under various doors. Really rather strange actually.
The other thing he’d noted as he paid closer attention was that some of these glowing spots that floated, also moved around almost as if intelligent. That rather spooked him. He didn’t know what those spots were. Ghosts maybe? He had to chide himself. Here he was, a demon, getting spooked by ghosts. It was just that he really still thought of himself as a human more than a demon. It hadn’t been that long ago that he’d finally even admitted it to himself. And even less time since his first trip to the Abyss.
He was just about to turn around and go back, deciding there was nothing interesting in this region, when a softly glowing door that he noticed out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He turned around to look again at the door, but found only blank stonewall. That was strange. He’d been sure there’d been a door there a moment ago. He went to the wall and peered more closely. Wall all right, why had it looked like a glowing door?
Rupert allowed his eyes to shift even more, he then stared at the spot on the wall as if trying to see through the stone. Slowly a door began to appear, superimposed on top of the stone. The harder he looked, almost squinting, the more he could see it. After staring intently for several moments, it seemed to solidify and the appearance of stone behind it vanished altogether. There was definitely a door there, and it did glow. What was going on here? Some sort of illusion? Rupert wondered.
He examined the door with his hands. Yes, now that he could see it, he could feel it too, there really was a door here. It was, not surprisingly, locked when Rupert tried it. That was a pain. All that trouble and he couldn’t even get through it. Rupert thought for a moment. There was a very simple spell for unlocking locks that weren’t magical. Given that the door had been hidden though, it was probably magically locked as well. He shrugged, the worst he could do was fail.
“Ek fen, bien lok. Fret net zien lok. Dok den ber abien.” Rupert said twisting his fingers in the requisite gesture. He heard a clicking noise from the keyhole! It wasn’t magically locked. Apparently, whoever hid the door must have believed the illusion and relative seclusion to be sufficient.
Rupert opened the door carefully and peered in. It was a small room. The room was about fifteen feet on a side with a door on the opposite wall. The only furniture was a table with a small glowing ball sitting on it off to the left. The room was otherwise empty. Rupert slipped into the room.
He stepped towards the door on the opposite wall. As he did so, a glowing light appeared about two feet from him. Actually, looking carefully, the light was only visible to his special sight. Normally it wouldn’t have been visible. Suddenly there was a four foot high demon standing in the room where the light had been. This demon was visible to any sight.
The demon was red all over. He had completely human legs except that they ended in hooves. Actually, aside from the hooves, a horse’s tail, the traditional bat-like wings and ivory horns, the demon looked nothing so much as a fat, red, short human. He was also completely bald, but his ears were normal. He had rather chubby cheeks to go with his large paunch. Oh, he also had, Rupert noted, some rather nasty looking fingernails. The demon was wearing a small red loincloth.
The demon smiled evilly at Rupert. The demon had wickedly pointed fangs also. Short, but wicked looking. Actually, Rupert was only guessing that the smile was rather wicked looking. He supposed that it was at least supposed to be wicked looking, but Tom was much better at it. Rupert wondered if he should act terrified. He supposed that would be the appropriate human response, but frankly, even Tizzy was scarier looking than this fellow.
“Where do you think you’re going, little boy?” The demon chuckled, again in what Rupert guessed to be a suitably terrifying form. Maybe it would look better if he played along a little bit.
He supposed he should at least be polite to one of his fellow demons. He really didn’t know demon etiquette. That was one of the problems with a human upbringing, he supposed. If he’d grown up in the Abyss, with Tom, he’d probably know better how to handle the situation. “Well, I saw this doorway here,” he pointed to the one he’d came through. “It was rather curious, being invisible and all, and since it wasn’t particularly locked. I decided to check it out.” Rupert told the demon truthfully.
The demon stopped smiling, apparently, annoyed Rupert wasn’t a quivering mass of gelatin. “It wasn’t well-locked because I’m here to guard it.” The demon concentrated what Rupert guessed to be a stern/evil stare at him.
“Oh.” Rupert said matter-of-factly. “That would make sense. Why are you guarding it? Is there anything interesting behind that door?” He pointed to the other door.
“Wouldn’t you like to know, kiddie?” The demon snarled nastily.
“Yes, actually, if it’s not too much of a bother.”
The demon blinked. “Well kid, I’ve got orders to let no one pass. That includes you. I don’t like to have to kill kids... but I don’t see that I have an alternative.” The demon shrugged, flexing its claws.
Rupert frowned. “Isn’t that a bit drastic? I was just curious. I thought the council was supposed to be full of good guys? Killing an innocent little kid for his curiosity seems a little harsh and out of character.”
The demon smiled, apparently more evilly, it was certainly showing more teeth. “I don’t work for the council. My master is a bit more powerful than those pathetic windbags. He’s ordered me to kill anyone entering without his approval. You entered. You weren’t approved. You gotta die.”