At last the cringing Yrbling cowered before him. Looking a little anemic Exador thought. “What happened, Yrbling? Make it quick or you’re gone for good.” Exador commanded.
“Sire, I beg you, I didn’t stand a chance.” Yrbling begged.
“Spit it out, before I rip it out of you.”
“Lord and master, please,” Yrbling bubbled, “The room was discovered by another demon. A powerful one. He bested me in combat.”
Exador stared down at his demon, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Another demon? Describe him.”
“Tall, huge bat wings, bald head, and snout. Incredibly big muscles. Huge scaley goat legs, black hooves. Spade tipped whipcord tail. Huge ebony claws and horns.” Yrbling cringed.
Exador looked thoughtful, Yrbling staring at his master’s feet didn’t notice. “Tall, you mean he was very large?”
“Extremely, sire, much much larger than I. There was little I could do before its might.”
“You imply that it was powerful?” Exador was looking off into space, calculating, hardly paying attention to his whimpering vassal.
“Incredibly so, sire.”
“Hmm, on the traditional scale, how would you rate this demon?”
Yrbling bit its lip, indecisive for a moment. “Fourth, sire, certainly as far as I could judge.” Exador looked down at it. He might have doubted the demon, such little weasels as Yrbling would say anything to save their wings; this, however, convinced him. No, Yrbling could not have made this up. The description, physically, power, everything. Yrbling hadn’t even tried to lie about the demon’s rank. Obviously, Lenamare’s fourth order demon had been poking its nose around. Probably checking to make sure Exador didn’t have the book.
Except for the fact that the book had been with the girl, and the demon with the girl. Thus why would the demon be looking for the book in Exador’s lab? If only he knew where the damn girl and that soon to be worse than dead Gastropé had vanished to. Then he’d have the book. The demon must have lost the girl and the book. Or maybe it hadn’t realized the girl had the book? Did the demon want the book for himself or its master? If for his master then surely he would have returned the girl to Lenamare. Then Lenamare would have the book and he wouldn’t need the demon to look for the book.
Therefore, Exador surmised, the demon must be acting as its own operative, looking for the book. He could certainly understand that. The question thus remained, where was that damned girl and the book? He was tapping his foot impatiently as he thought. Suddenly he noticed Yrbling babbling something at his feet. He frowned.
“Yrbling. Get your wings back to the Abyss and fully regenerate. You’re no good to me in this state you moron. When you’ve got yourself back together, contact me through the usual channels. I’ll have a new assignment for you. I think I need someone bigger down here from now on.” Exador turned and left the room, the door opening and closing behind him.
Yrbling stared after his departing master. He was not sure whether to believe his good luck, or worry that it was part of a more elaborate punishment on Exador’s part. Either way, for the moment he was still alive. That was enough.
Chapter 69
Edwyrd cursed to himself. Tizzy had been right, there were demons all over. He was able to get a lot more practice in changing just his eyes today in order to search for demons. It took a great deal of concentration but like holding the Edwyrd form itself, practice made it easier. They’d retraced the corridors and exactly as Tizzy had told them, there were glowing lights visible only to his demon sight. Concentrating on the spots of light for a few moments allowed him to make out the outlines of demons. All of various shapes and sizes, but none very big. A few of the glowing lights actually had no outline or form; these however were also visible to his Edwyrd sight as dark shadowy spots in corners. Tizzy informed him that these were shadows, amorphous bodiless demons.
They’d gone through several dozen corridors, he and Gastropé counting well over a hundred demons in about two hours. Gastropé could apparently do something so that he could see invisible objects also. However, it seemed to take Gastropé’ about as much effort as it did Edwyrd to do so. They’d gone to dinner and peered around the dining hall cautiously, making sure they were far away from the ever present demons. Even so, they had to sit in the very center of the dining room to avoid the demons in the room.
“So what do we do?” Edwyrd asked Gastropé. Gastropé just shrugged, frowning, as he sipped more stew from his spoon. Edwyrd pretended to eat. He was worried that with all these demons around, one would spot him for what he was and tell whomever they worked for.
“I don’t know.” Gastropé told Edwyrd looking helplessly at his dinner companion. “Tizzy pointed out the second and thirds also. Those really make me nervous.” Certain areas in the lower regions seemed to have more powerful demons as well as the little ones everywhere. There weren’t many, they’d only encountered about four threes and a dozen or so twos. Nonetheless, Edwyrd was pretty sure that if the general populous knew there would be panic. “I suspect we should tell someone.”
“Who?” Edwyrd asked him.
“I don’t know. Maelen certainly, but that won’t do anything to get rid of them. We could tell Lenamare, but I really don’t trust him.”
“You either, huh?” Edwyrd said.
“Yeah, I guess that leaves Damien.” Gastropé’ shrugged, unsure if it was a good idea. Edwyrd wasn’t sure either. They didn’t know this Damien, but he was a council member that wasn’t Lenamare, Exador or Jehenna. The only other council members they knew of. The only problem would be if the demons were Damien’s. He might not appreciate having them noticed.
“Well,” Edwyrd began, “he is the closest thing we know to a local authority that we even remotely trust. This does seem like one of those things the people in charge should be aware of.” Gastropé just nodded.
The question it seemed was to be taken out of their hands. They had gone to see the wizard Damien, but no one had answered their knock. “Apparently not in. I guess we’ll have to think of something else,” Gastropé stated. They headed back to their quarters, somewhat relieved to have the need of acting taken out of their hands.
Several minutes later as they were crossing the main foyer of the palace to get to the other side where their quarters were; the question was put back in their hands. Even as they reached the middle of the large courtroom, Damien came striding through the front doors of the palace. The golden haired wizard was looking rather grim. “Well?” Edwyrd looked at Gastropé. Gastropé just gestured for Edwyrd to precede him to the wizard.
“Damien.” Edwyrd called as they approached the wizard. For a moment, the wizard appeared lost in thought, but then he noted the two young men approaching him. He nodded to them grimly as they approached him. “Councilor, may we have a word with you?” Edwyrd asked.
Damien sighed, “I’m a little preoccupied at the moment; could it wait until tomorrow?”
Edwyrd thought for a moment, “I suspect it would be better if you knew sooner than later.”
“Knew? Knew what?” Damien looked wearily and suspiciously at Edwyrd.
“I think we better go someplace private.” Edwyrd told him, “and secure from prying ears.” Damien just raised his eyebrows and motioned the two to follow him back to his quarters.