To her dismay, she found that it came from all around them, there were at least four wizards out there. Even as she searched, two more fireballs came roaring down the mountainside to engulf the wagon behind them and one of the peasant wagons at the rear. She only had time to note that the soldiers were already down, the largest group of them had already been roasted alive along with their horses. Most of the grass in the bottom of the valley was on fire. Lightning rained from the cloudless sky. Sick at heart, she reached out to the nearest wizard. She called to the grass at his feet to rise to her command. Shouting words she herself couldn’t even hear in the roar of the fireballs and the flames from the burning grass and other wagons, she caused the grass around her target to rise to three times its normal height and begin to entwine her enemy.
The grass began to strangle him, it tangled his hands and arms so he couldn’t cast any spells, it would take a while to kill him, but she didn’t know what else to do. Now that she had quit the conjuration part of her spell, she no longer needed to shout, all she needed to do was concentrate. She just about lost her concentration, however, when she heard what Jehenna was saying beside her.
“Tomasedwardperkinje, by thy name and this ring I thee summon. Come! I command thee obey. For I, Jehenna, art thy Master, thou art my servant, thou art bound by the power of this ring, by the Covenant of the Ring. Thou must appear. Aid me now, in this time of need. I command thee.” Jehenna shouted at the top of her lungs.
Jenn was having all she could do to hang onto her concentration. It wasn’t enough that they were under ambush, the madwoman was summoning a fourth order demon with a ring alone! No protections, sigils or triangles! The damn bitch was insane! What would they do? Only Jehenna’s will and the ring would keep it from destroying them. True, Jehenna would probably be safe with the ring, but everyone else?
In front of the wagon, the flames rose even higher, towering up and up, easily shooting twenty feet into the air. A roar louder than any so far grew with the flames. Out from the flames stepped the demon. A true creature of nightmare. Towering as high as Jehenna who stood in the wagon, the thing’s evil body gleamed purplish red in the flames. Flames danced behind it and within its eyes. Sparks seemed to jump from its horns. It bared its giant fangs in a grimace of hatred; it stood with its hooves planted four feet apart, its tail swinging angrily back and forth. Its huge phallus, there between its legs, a monstrous obscenity to the ways of nature. Its forearms stretched outward from its sides and flexed their razor sharp ebony claws. It seemed to be flexing its legs, as if to spring upon the wagon and rend them limb from limb. Small puffs of smoke rose from its nostrils, while its giant bat like wings fanned the fires around it, to quickly speed the destruction of the wagons.
“WHAT WOULDST THOU HAVE OF ME? THIS DAY I COME OF MY OWN WILL. SPEAKEST QUICKLY LEST I DESTROY THEE IN MY WRATH!” bellowed the foul creature; the voice shook Jenn to her very bones, and as it spoke, her concentration at last broke, and she could no longer maintain her spell, knowing full well that she was about to die. She offered a silent prayer that the thing would get careless, and forget, and kill her first, before it raped her. This was pretty much all she could think of as she slid to the foot rest of the wagon.
The wagon, on the other hand, was doing its best to come up and meet her. The horses were going absolutely insane at the presence of the demon. They were rearing and screaming, kicking and jumping. Every movement that the harness allowed them, they performed. In quick frustration, Jehenna, trying not to lose her concentration, pulled Tanthor’s Wand of Paralyzation from her robe and quickly zapped the horses, with it. They fell to the ground with a large crash, breaking the guide poles on the wagon, but due to the nature of the wand, were unharmed themselves, simply unable to move.
Trying to regain her equilibrium, Jehenna continued, “know oh demon, Tomasedwardperkinje, that you are mine to command... you must do as I say.” Jehenna’s brow was sweating mighty heavily. Something wasn’t right, it just didn’t feel right, she thought. “We have been ambushed by our enemies, I command you go out and destroy those who attack us!” The demon leered at her, its evil grin, giving even her a slight pause. Slowly it looked at the horses on the ground, apparently hoping, in its lust for destruction that they were dead. It then looked at her; and then around at the rest of what was left of the wagon train, as if sizing up the situation. It didn’t move to follow her orders.
As the wagons spread out into the valley, Trisfelt too felt the surge of magic. Although many laughed at the pudgy wizard, and considered him to be perhaps the least of Masters of Lenamare’s school, mainly because of his paunch, he was no slackard when it came to magic. As quickly as Jehenna, he flung up a fire shield about his wagon., He only wished it could go farther, but the spell had its limits, especially when cast ad hoc. He could only grimace as most of the other wagons went up in flames in the initial assault. As soon as the flames died enough to release the shield, he tracked down his enemies and located them.
Calling upon his vast supplies of energy, one reason he ate so much was to get the physical energy that magic required of his body, he flung mighty bolts of lightning at the wizards. They fought back, trying to resist his bolts, but he rained them down incessantly, and they did crack. He managed to kill two of them, before he noticed the tower of flames from before Jehenna’s wagon.
“What is she doing?” he asked rhetorically. He knew; he could feel the conjuration spell. As the demon stepped from the flames, the wagon rocked, and he turned to see Rupert diving from the wagon. He yelled to Rupert to get back in, but the boy ignored him He couldn’t leave the wagon, that would risk the other children, damn that boy. As he frantically thought of what to do he suddenly heard what the demon was saying.
“Own free will?” puzzled Trisfelt, that wasn’t good, demons didn’t usually say that sort of thing unless it was true, and that tower of flame wasn’t right either. At this point he noticed enemy soldiers on horseback charging down the hill, and they had bows. “Fuck,” said Master Trisfelt.
He jumped into the back of the wagon with the rest of the kids. This wasn’t good., Only one thing left, he thought as he gathered the kids to him. He raised his hands and shouted, “Exodilium transportatum, cyrilius seat flux, Universum Solum, globum teraturam Astlan sig faltum. Translatus por crealum, nos patrium siyenta.” He focused his mind on his charges and their current surroundings while superimposing their destination in his mind. He created the juxtaposition of temporal coordinates necessary for nontranslational motion. As he brought his palms together above his head, bluish light flared from his chest, engulfing the four of them, and then they were gone.
The demon glared at Jehenna for a few moments more, it then slowly turned and began to move towards the oncoming soldiers. Temporarily relieved, Jehenna breathed a sigh of relief. Then she noticed the oncoming bowmen on horses, as they started to rain arrows upon her and the few remaining guards, who were charging them. “Shit, this is not my day.” Jehenna swore as she quickly tore off the demon’s ring, she dropped it on the floor of the wagon, there wasn’t time to put it away, as she quickly put on her Porisiun’s Proven Personal Protection Ring, cursing the limitations of conflicting elemental affiliations in the rings.
She hated to give up the demon ring, in case it changed its mind before she was ready, but she couldn’t ditch the Lenamare’s Locator Ring, and even though it might be useful in the future., That will be then; this is now, she thought. Just as she slipped the new ring on, an arrow went by her throat, narrowly missing her. “Damn good thing I switched,” she muttered as she tossed stuff off the wagon trying to get under the seat. Finally, the path was clear, and she reached under and grabbed her book. “Wouldn’t want to lose this. Now bastards,” she said as she turned, “Freehold here I come.” She raised her arms above her head, and repeated words similar to Trisfelt’s and left in a flash of blue light. Jenn, simply sat limply on the foot rail.