"You wish a meeting?" Aahz asked haughtily, drawing to a halt before the group.
There was a ripple of quick consultation among the soldiers. Finally one of them, apparently the leader, stepped forward.
"We wish to speak with your master!" he announced formally.
"He's kinda busy right now," Aahz yawned. "Anything I can help you with?"
The leader reddened slightly.
"I am the commander of this sector!" he barked. "I demand to see Skeeve, commander of the defense, not his lackey!"
I dropped one of the bags of flash powder on the ground at my feet.
"If you insist," Aahz growled, "I'll get him. But he won't be happy."
"I'm not here to make him happy," the leader shouted. "Now be off with you."
"That won't be necessary," Aahz leered. "He's a magician. He hears and sees what his servants hear and see. He'll be along."
That was my cue. I let drop the sheet of invisibility and simultaneously ignited the bag of flash powder.
The results were spectacular.
The soldiers, with the exception of the leader, fell back several steps. To them, it looked as if I had suddenly appeared from thin air, materializing in a cloud of red smoke.
For me, the effect was less impressive. As the bag of flash powder went off, it was made apparent to me that watching a cloud of smoke from a distance was markedly different from standing at ground zero.
As I was enveloped in the scarlet billows, my feeling was not of elated triumph but rather a nearly overwhelming desire to cough and sneeze.
My efforts to suppress my reactions caused me to contort my features to the point where I must have borne more than a faint resemblance to Gus.
"Steady, Master!" Aahz cautioned.
"Aahz. Ah!" I gasped.
"Do not let your anger overcome your reason," my mentor continued hastily. "They don't know the powers they trifle with."
"I ... I did not wish to be disturbed," I managed at last, regaining my breath as the smoke dissipated.
The leader of the group had held his ground through the entire proceedings, though he looked a bit paler and less sure of himself than when he had been dealing with just Aahz.
"We... um... apologize for bothering you," he began uncertainly. "But there are certain matters requiring your immediate attention... specifically the war we are currently engaged in."
I eyed him carefully. He seemed to be of a different cut than Claude had been.
"I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage, sir," I said cagily. "You seem to know me, but I don't recall having met you before."
"We have not met before," the officer replied grimly. "If we had, be assured one of us would not be here currently. I know you by reputation, specifically for your recent efforts to resist the advance of our army. For myself, I am Antonio, commander of the right wing of the left flank of the Empire's army. These are my officers."
He indicated the soldiers behind him with a vague wave of his hand. The men responded by drawing themselves more erect and thrusting out their chins arrogantly.
I acknowledged them with a slight nod.
"Where is Claude?" I asked casually. "I was under the impression he was an officer of this sector."
"You are correct," Antonio smirked. "He was. He is currently being detained until he can be properly court-martialed ... for incompetence!"
"Incompetence?" I echoed. "Come now, sir. Aren't you being a little harsh? While Claude may have overstepped his abilities a bit, I wouldn't say he's incompetent. I mean, after all, he was dealing with supernatural powers, if you know what I mean." As I spoke, I wiggled my fingers dramatically at Aahz and removed his disguise.
The jaws of the attending officers dropped, ruining their arrogant jut. Then Aahz grinned at them, and their mouths clicked shut in unison as they swallowed hard. Antonio was unimpressed. "Yes, yes," he said briskly, waving a hand as if at an annoying fly. "We have had reports, many reports, as to your rapport with demons. Claude's incompetence is in his disastrous underestimation of the forces opposing him. Be assured, I will not be guilty of the same error."
"Don't count on it, Tony," Aahz leered. "We demons can be a pretty tricky lot." The officer ignored him.
"However, we are not here for idle pleasantries," he said, fixing me with a stern gaze. "I believe we have a dispute to settle concerning right of passage over this particular piece of terrain."
"We have a dispute concerning your right of passage over the kingdom of Possiltum," I corrected.
"Yes, yes," Antonio yawned. "Of course, if you want to stop us from gaining Possiltum, you had best stop us here."
"That's about how we had it figured," Aahz agreed.
"Not to belabor the point, Antonio," I smiled, "but I believe we do have you stopped."
"Temporarily," the officer smiled. "I expect that situation to change shortly... shall we say, a few hours after dawn? Tomorrow?"
"We'll be here," Aahz nodded.
"Just a moment," I interrupted. "Antonio, you strike me as being a sporting man. Would you like to make our encounter tomorrow a little more interesting? Say, with a little side wager?"
"Such as what?" the officer scowled.
"If you lose tomorrow," I said carefully, "will you admit Claude's defeat had nothing to do with incompetence and drop the charges against him?"
Antonio thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Done," he said. "Normally I would fear what the reaction of my superiors would be, but I am confident of my victory. There are things even a demon cannot stand against."
"Such as?" Aahz drawled.
"You will see," the officer smiled. "Tomorrow."
With that, he spun on his heel and marched off, his officers trailing behind him.
"What do you think, Aahz?" I murmured.
"Think?" my mentor scowled. "I think you're going soft, kid. First Brockhurst, now Claude. What is this ‘be kind to enemies' kick you're on?" "I meant about tomorrow," I clarified quickly. "I dunno, kid," Aahz admitted. "He sounded too confident for comfort. I wish I knew what he's got up his sleeve that's supposed to stop demons." "Well," I sighed, "I guess we'll see tomorrow."
Chapter Twenty-One:
"It takes a giant to fight a giant."
-H.PRYM
OUR pensiveness was still with us the next day.
Our opponents were definitely up to something, but we couldn't tell exactly what it was. Tanda and Brockhurst had headed out on a scouting trip during the night and had brought back puzzling news. The Empire's soldiers had brought up some kind of heavy equipment, but it was hidden from sight by a huge box. All our scouts could say for sure was that whatever the secret weapon was, it was big and it was heavy.
Gus offered to fly over the box to take a quick peek inside, but we vetoed the idea. With the box constantly in the center of a mass of soldiers, there was no way the gargoyle could carry out his mission unobserved. Even if he used the invisibility sheet, the army was so far flung that someone would see him. So far we had kept the gargoyle's presence on our team as a secret, and we preferred to keep it that way. Even if we disguised him as Aahz or myself, it would betray the fact that someone in our party was able to fly. As Aahz pointed out, it looked as if this campaign would be rough enough without giving the opposition advance warning of the extent of our abilities.
This was all tactically sound and irrefutably logical. Nonetheless, it did nothing to reassure me as Aahz and I stood waiting for Antonio to make his opening gambit.