“So you want a pavilion for them to rest in?” Meat Maker asked uncertainly.
Virok shrugged. “That is a convenient way to arrange it. My guess is that the D’Wargs may want to take the measure of some of the wargs here.” He grinned, his eyes glowing deep red in his otherwise gray face. “Perhaps in a few months some of your other guests may end up with some mighty nasty pups.”
“We will leave the customary two handlers here to ensure that none of the wargs are accidentally killed or eaten by the D’Wargs,” Vespa said, producing two large silver coins. “Will this be sufficient to rent a pavilion until midafternoon?”
Meat Maker eyed the two large, very old coins. Suddenly he seemed to relax and get much friendlier. He nodded. “It will do; however, it does not cover glargh for your handlers. That is extra, paid at the bar.”
Vespa nodded.
Sir Gadius and Peace Bringer solidified on the shore of the small island along the coast of Norelon, en route to Keeper’s City. Gadius pulled his helmet off, placing it under one arm as he moved to a large rock to rest. His iridescent chain mail rattled under his surcoat as he sat. Peace Bringer wandered over to a patch of tasty-looking grass and began munching.
Gadius chuckled. “I might join you,” he said. “I’m not hungry, nor I suppose are you; but at this point, after the last five hours traversing the aether, any semblance of normality would be welcome.” To outside observers, the unicorn would seem to be ignoring him; however, Gadius could feel his companion’s amusement at his desire for normalcy. Gadius had never like traveling through the aether. True, one never tired or got hungry; nor did one have to worry about landscape features, if one did not care to. He did not like running through mountains and hills, though. It was too unsettling. He preferred to go over such obstacles.
Sea travel was much better, unless the waves were really high; aethereally “splashing” through the waves, and sand dunes for that matter, was much less unpleasant than moving through solid stone.
He sighed. Officially, they were taking a break in the material world to relieve the otherness of the aether, but the two of them had spent days and nights traversing the aether when time was critical. One needed neither rest nor sleep in the aether. Time was important, but the arch-vicar general’s ships set the length of time for the journey, not the two of them. He had no desire to arrive in Keeper’s City before the fleet.
No, he had no fear of Keeper’s City; it was simply his distrust and distaste for the Oorstemothians. This proposed alliance did not sit well with him. However, their planned undertaking required resources that neither the Rod nor the church possessed. This Chancellor Alighieri claimed to have built the ideal tool to achieve their goal of rescuing Talarius.
It would be a long and difficult journey, if it even truly worked, but it was their solemn duty to try and rescue their brother knight. He could only imagine the horrors the good fellow must be enduring. With a cruel thought, Gadius suddenly wondered if Talarius had been reconnected with his doomed, damned ladylove, Melissance.
Sir Gadius shook his head at his own pettiness. Such a horrible thought was unworthy of him. Still, if they at least met up for a short while, maybe the knight would stop obsessing over the woman. It had been long enough ago at this point that Talarius’s continued dwelling on her had become more of a pathology than an emotional sentiment.
Gadius suddenly had a horrible thought. What if Talarius refused to leave the Abyss without rescuing Melissance? It would be his one-time opportunity to do the unimaginable. Gadius shook his head at that thought. Where would one even begin to look for her, who had been but a poor lost soul consigned to the Abyss upon death, deprived of the grace of Tiernon? An unholy beast like that which had kidnapped Talarius would surely stand out in the Abyss; even if not, they would be able to track Talarius, given that the knight would be the only other thing in the Abyss to radiate the power signature of Tiernon. A lost soul, however, would be nearly impossible to find.
“Mistress?” One of her pages requested Lilith’s attention.
“Yes?” The demoness asked, gazing at her servant over the top of the old scroll of infantem vellum she had been reading.
“Lord Asmodeus is here to see you,” the page replied nervously.
“Show him in.” Lilith
The page closed the door and a few moments later the door opened again with the page ushering the demon prince in. Asmodeus came in with a firm jaw, but a distinct twinkle in his eye. The page left the room closing the door behind itself.
Lilith gestured at the chair opposite her in front of the ice-place for him to join her.
He glanced at the icy flames in the ice-place. “Cozying up with a good book?”
Lilith simply smiled and handed him the scroll.
As he took it, he noticed the feel. “Infantem vellum? It must be a good read.” He glanced briefly at it. “Indeed, I had thought this lost for a few millennia.”
Lilith smiled and shrugged. “I was cleaning up one of my remote palaces and found it.”
“Hmm, perhaps I should do similar to see what I might find.” Asmodeus chuckled.
“Knowing you, it’s more likely an issue of ‘who’ you might find. You tend to be in the middle of torturing someone, get distracted and then forget about them for a few centuries or more.”
Asmodeus shook his head from side to side in a short arc. “Are you prescient?”
Lilith raised an eyebrow.
“I did happen to find someone I had misplaced,” he said.
“Really?”
“Yes, although this had only been for a few decades.”
“Go on... I assume this must be something relevant to one of our current endeavors or you would not rush right over to tell me.” Lilith chuckled.
“Indeed.” Asmodeus nodded. “You recall this knight of Tiernon that the greater demon captured? Talarius?”
Lilith nodded. “My understanding is that he’s one of Tiernon’s greatest knights in Astlan.”
“Indeed, but that is not all. Like most heroes, he had an exploitable weakness.”
“Had?” Lilith asked.
“That’s just it. One of my archdemons had been working on this corruption deal with his vampire agents in Astlan, and they had encountered this Talarius and were working to corrupt him.”
“And?” Lilith was getting intrigued.
“Well, it seems they put a challenge out to him, and he rose above it and sacrificed his one true love to maintain his holy vows.” Asmodeus smiled.
“So the corruption exercise failed.” Lilith shrugged.
At this point Asmodeus’s grin became wicked. Lilith always enjoyed this grin. “Yes, but he has apparently been tormenting himself ever since.” Lilith nodded for him to continue. “And of course, we still have the bait — he sacrificed her and my agent has her soul!”
Lilith clapped her hands. “Excellent! Once he finds out, he will be compelled to mount a rescue mission. We then get him, and with him will come the greater demon!”
Asmodeus smiled. “This should drag this so-called greater demon out of that stupid cave he’s holed up in!”
Lilith’s grin faded and turned to a frown and then a grimace. “Yes, well, about that...”
Asmodeus looked at her curiously.
“There has been a bit of a complication. He and his entourage have relocated,” Lilith told him.
Asmodeus shrugged. “So where did he go? We will just track him down there. He didn’t leave the Abyss, did he?”
“No,” Lilith admitted, “but that might have been better. You aren’t going to like this.”