“They, too, spoke of the Demons,” Miriam said. “What are the Demons?”
“This is not well known,” Lady Che-chee said. “But if your armored people will allow you to accompany me deeper into the manor, I will show you something of them. Your ‘crazy-brave’ guard may accompany you.”
“She wants to show me something deeper in the castle,” Miriam said. “Something about these demons they keep talking about. They have the same legend. I don’t think the armor will fit. She says that Chief Miller can come with me.”
“Go,” Bill said. “By the time anything gets by Miller we’ll be there.”
The room that they were led to was at the very back of the castle. The lintel of the door was very low, so low Miller had to near get on his knees, as did Lady Che-chee.
Miller paused as he started to go through and frowned.
“What the hell are those?” he asked, pointing to marks above the door.
“Demon claws,” Lady Che-chee said, without asking for translation. “That is what I wished to show you.”
“Damn,” Miller said after the words were translated. The gouges in the limestone were nearly finger deep and nearly as wide. He could fit a finger most of the way down.
“Yes,” Lady Che-chee said, apparently getting the context. “Inside I will show you more.”
The room was small but well-lit by candles and lined with… bits. There was a tapestry, some metal workings, some pieces of armor. The latter, made of heavy bronze, were torn to shreds.
At the back of the room was another small door, very low, and made of stone and metal. Both had been heavily gouged.
“Observe the tapestry,” Lady Che-chee said, gesturing.
The tapestry depicted a battle scene. A one-sided one. Cheerick dressed similar to Greek hoplites were being torn apart by a wave of -
“Are those Dreen?” Miriam asked nervously.
“No,” Miller said, immediately. “At least none that I’ve seen. Similar, though.”
There were several kinds of demons. In the forefront of the wave were low-slung beasts not too different from the predators they’d fought on the island. The big difference being that their skin seemed to have been hardened. Some were depicted as being killed by the spears and short swords of the Cheerick, some were slashed. But it was clearly hard to kill them.
Mingling with them and behind were bigger beasts, the size of rhinoceros, which were insectoid and beetlelike. Those were shown as being nearly invulnerable. One was spitted by a lance-wielding flier on some sort of seat. But nothing else seemed to stop them.
Behind them, surrounded in places by flying fighters, were bigger beasts that looked something like a low-slung dragon, complete with overlapping scales. Again, one had been injured by being poked in the mouth but otherwise was unstoppable.
In the distance, set in one corner of the tapestry, were vague figures that seemed to be flying towards the fight. Their form appeared to be unclear to the artist of the tapestry as well, simply being impressions of something that looked a bit like a long-winged airplane.
“This is a class,” Miller said. “This is a class on what you can do, what little you can do from the looks of things, to stop the Demons.”
“Yes,” Lady Che-chee said when that was translated. “I took it the same way.”
“Where did you get it?” Miriam asked.
“This home was owned, for many generations, by the same family,” Lady Che-chee said. “I bought it when they had become destitute. Their ancestor was the Lady of this area the last time the Demons came. The legend is that the city had become corrupt and the Demons came to bring it back to the path of right. The writings that survive indicate that it had become, in fact, much as it is right now. That is, people were asking questions long prevented by the Church. And that, somehow, that drew the Demons.”
“Oh,” Miriam said, frowning.
“They are said to be drawn, as well, by made moving things, such as your armor,” Lady Che-chee said. “And light that comes not from fire. But there’s an interesting thing…”
“Yes?” Miriam asked.
“You see, there are already rumors that the Demons are returning,” Lady Che-chee said. “Quite valid ones, I’m afraid. Last month, I was sent a message from Court. Two farms nearby the capital had been attacked. It was assumed, initially, that it had been by brigands. A cavalry patrol was dispatched to hunt them down. One fighter returned. Carrying this.”
She opened up the small door and pulled out a large glass flask. In it was a taloned paw.
“So. The Demons seem to have returned.”
27
“We didn’t cause this, right?” the CO said.
“We were forty light-years away a month ago, sir,” Commander Weaver pointed out.
“And we’re sure this isn’t just legends?” the CO asked.
“About as legendary as the Roman Republic,” Miriam said. “Their written records go back several thousand years. And they have these periodic ‘demon’ attacks.”
“Having seen the evidence up close, sir,” Chief Warrant Officer Miller interjected, “it is my professional opinion that the demons are either real or very well hoaxed. I measured a couple of the gouges in the door and on the armor and they’re pretty much identical. I don’t know what their claws are made of, but they cut through heavy bronze like butter.”
“Lady Che-chee is, besides being a soldier, apparently a bit of a scholar,” Miriam said. “She’s collected every fragment of information about the Demon Times she could afford. I guess it’s a natural sort of thing for soldiers to be interested in. It seems like every time this society hits a Renaissance, they get destroyed. The Fall of Atlantis over and over again.”
“That confirms an indicator we’ve seen, recently,” First Sergeant Powell said. “Besides the obvious civilizations, there are several that Miss Moon initially identified as ‘barbaric.’ The problem being that, based on the nature of some of those regions, ready access to the oceans, fertile farmland, there was no reason for it to be barbarian areas.”
“Let me guess,” the CO said.
“One whole continent is peppered with recent ruins, sir,” the first sergeant said.
“And Atlantis falls,” Chief Miller said. “That’s just lousy.”
“I find it interesting that there are legends of machinery but no machinery,” Weaver interjected. “They even have drawings of what look like robots. Of course, they’re on clay tablets. Could these Cheerick be transplants?”
“Possible,” Dr. Robertson said. “Their biology is different.”
“So how, or why, did these Demons destroy their biology?” the CO asked. “And are they a threat to us?”
“Unknown, sir,” Chief Miller answered. “Based on the tapestry, none of the Demons could harm the ship. The beetles or the dragon might take out a Wyvern, though. No real clue how resistant to Gatling fire they are.”
“The last thing I want to do is get into another furball,” the CO said. “But we really haven’t made full contact, yet. Captain MacDonald, security is going to get stretched. I want your Marines to be ready for deployment at all times. Figure out the details on that and get back to me. Obviously, any away team has to have security but don’t strip the ship.”
“Yes, sir,” Mac said.
“XO, make sure our own security is up to snuff,” the CO said. “Marines have point but they’re to back them. Schedule combined ops drills.”
“Sir.”
“Let’s establish communication with the local leaders, get a survey done and then get the hell out of here.”