“Hah,” Jenn laughed, “Lenamare, sacrifice himself for anyone! Hah! That’s a joke. No you can be sure he set some sort of timer and then teleported away, after removing the wards, for fullest effect.”
“O.K. but then where are the rest of the people, surely that wasn’t everyone in the castle back there.”
“No, we split into different groups, for maximum diversion and the greatest hope of some people getting away. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be working too well.”
Tom couldn’t say anything to that, but he did ask, “Why? Why would he abandon such a secure position? That force field of his seemed pretty potent, and with the resources he had to call on.”
“Not quite, the wards were failing. When you so obligingly forced us to open it, Exador sent fireballs in and killed a lot of our people, including one of the people maintaining the wards, who happened to be my close friend!” Jenn’s anger at the demon coming back.
That shocked him a bit. He only vaguely remembered the whole thing, and then nothing about fireballs. He hated to think innocent people had been killed when he tried to get in. “I’m sorry; I didn’t know.” Jenn remained silent. “I really didn’t know too much about what was going on. I really wasn’t in control then. I couldn’t help what I did. Lenamare didn’t give me much choice. His orders were pretty specific to return to him.
“Believe me, if I had had a choice, I certainly wouldn’t have returned.” Tom was feeling a bit cold at the moment toward Lenamare, but he did regret her friend dying, maybe that explained her attitude, a bit. “I really am sorry your friend died,” he repeated.
Jenn remained silent; she just nodded. She then quickly turned away but not before Tom could notice tears streaming down her cheeks. She shrugged her shoulders, shook her head as if to clear the notion that a demon could actually apologize for something it had done.
They were riding through a small valley now, with a few trees. “Why don’t we stop now? The horses need to rest.” She decided that she wouldn’t sleep though. It was too dangerous. She dismounted near a tree, Tom landed nearby and began looking for a place to lay Rupert down.
As Tom laid the boy down, he woke groggily, and asked what was happening. “We’re just setting camp., Go back to sleep; I’ll take care of everything.” As the boy leaned back against the tree Tom had set him next to, Tom began gathering evergreen bows and some mulching for the boy to have a soft bed. By the time he’d finished, Jenn had taken care of the horses and was getting some food.
She looked at Rupert and apparently decided to let him sleep, rather than make him eat. She sat down and began to eat, then looked at Tom. Grudgingly she offered him some cheese. He smiled at her being forced to be polite, fortunately she couldn’t see it or she might have fainted. “No thanks, I don’t eat,” Tom said.
She withdrew her cheese. Now, thought Tom, how will she interpret that? Probably for the worst. He took Rupert up and set him down on the bed he prepared. As he stood to leave, Rupert sleepily grabbed his hoof.
“Don’t leave me, Tom. Stay, please,” mumbled the boy.
Tom arched his eyebrows in surprise, but squatted down next to the tree beside the boy and rested his hand upon the boys shoulder. He was a bit weary, not really tired, but weary after the day’s events. He stared into the night sky. Aware of the girl glaring at his every move. It would be interesting to see if she managed to stay awake all night on guard.
Tom simply stared up into the sky, thinking. Thinking about the battle today. How could he have done all that. It was, he thought like a dream, he had seen the destruction caused by the ambushers and allowed himself to be carried away by his anger and rage. It just didn’t make sense. He’d never had any great anger or fury before coming to Astlan.
He didn’t know, it was almost as if, well, demons were supposed to be creatures of unstoppable fury, it was like his anger matched his form. Maybe it was a part of being a demon. He didn’t know. It was scary though, to think that he could just go off into a red fury like that and destroy things. Were Rupert and the girl safe with him? What if he got mad at them. Maybe he was the evil creature she believed him to be. To be sure, before, he never would have killed anyone; now it was all he seemed to do. Kill, kill kill. What kind of monster was he? If demon’s eyes could have cried, he might have.
Eventually, he came out of his reverie. He noticed, by her breathing that Jenn had fallen asleep. As he started to shift his weight, he also noticed that Rupert had entangled himself on Tom. The boy had somehow wormed his way up near Tom’s side. He was hugging Tom with one arm, and had his other thumb in his mouth. Tom had to smile, what a strange kid.
Blue light filled the center of the room. Lenamare’s body formed into existence. As the blue light died, he took in the candle light, soft tapestries, and the carpet below his feet. Where was he? Quickly he looked around. Apparently, he was in some well-appointed bedroom; paneled walls hung with tapestries, tastefully carved furniture. There was also a large feather bed with red satin sheets, complete with a naked and inviting Jehenna.
Lenamare smiled, “I must admit, my dear. You do know how to rough it.”
“Yes,” she said seductively. Then she put aside her sulky side, and said in a business-like manner, “we were ambushed today, shortly after lunch. Some of Exador’s hired goons, with wizards. Unfortunately it was a rout, I had to teleport away.”
“You got the book.”
“Of course, you don’t take me for a fool do you.”
As a second thought, Lenamare asked, “What about the others?”
“Trisfelt slipped away, took some people I think. They managed to surprise us and torch pretty much everyone else with fireballs. I summoned the fourth order demon in hopes of salvaging things, but...”
“But?”
“Something wasn’t right. I couldn’t feel the proper control. He even claimed to have come of his own will. He eventually did as I commanded, but by that point more enemies were coming, and I decided it would be best to leave with the book.”
“Wise decision,” Lenamare approved.
“I had to leave the ring, I needed a protection ring, and didn’t have time to balance the elements in the rings, so I just dropped the ring. If she’s lucky, that girl Jenn may have grabbed it and kept herself from being raped when the demon returned.’
“Oh well, regrettable, but we can make another. For now, let’s make something else.” He smiled as his clothes vanished in a puff of smoke.
“Let’s,” she agreed as she raised the sheet, and extinguished the candles with a bare thought.
He was pissed. Damn Lenamare to the deepest part of the Abyss. The aerorian smith kisser had tricked him. It had cost him most of his army, that stung. He’d gotten suspicious as the wards dropped suddenly, and then he’d sensed it. He’d only had the barest time to raise a strong shield. It protected everyone behind him, fortunately; however, most of his troops were surrounding the keep.
He still wasn’t sure what it was that Lenamare had done, but it had taken everything he had to maintain that shield. At the moment he could hardly move. He sat in his throne, and his officers brought him the news. Any people not protected by the shield were gone. Ashes or less. Of those protected by the shield, half had been watching the keep and were blind, those nearest the shield had burns and were quickly sickening. Fortunately, many of his sycophants were quick to point out, Exador had had his helmet on, and was well behind his own magical shield.