Apostles of Doom

“Come, Darflow. Hold me to my word. Force me to treat your soldiers the way you would have them treated, not the way Lilith would treat them. Hold me to the oaths I swear to them.” The demon lord shook his head. “These brave demons followed you to certain death today. You ordered them, and they followed you. They upheld their oath to you. How can you do less for them?” He went silent.

The two armies were both silent for several minutes. Darflow had closed his eyes. He opened them at last, shook his head. “You will honor your word, D’Orc Lord.” Their commander knelt before the Dark Lord Tommus.

Chapter 117

Murgatroy: Several hours earlier, DOA + 1, Shortly After Lunch

Jenn and Hilda stared after the running metal man that had just left them abruptly shouting something about a portal and finding someone.

Jenn turned back to Hilda. “Who was that?” she asked the healer.

“His name is Ruiden. He’s a metal golem that belongs — I guess that’s the word — to the knight Talarius,” Hilda replied, frowning in thought as she looked off after the sword.

“A knight of Tiernon owns a metal golem?” Jenn asked, puzzled.

A young man dressed something like a ranger said, “Well, technically, Ruiden is Talarius’s sword. He simply turned himself into a golem so that he could hunt for his owner.”

Jenn shook her head; that explanation made absolutely no sense. Neither, however, did Hilda’s presence here, thousands of leagues from Freehold. How had she gotten here so quickly? The Nimbus was the fastest ship Jenn knew of. Teleportation could not transport people these distances; even a runic gateway would be hard-pressed to span this sort of distance.

“How are you here? Why are you here?” Jenn asked, turning back to Hilda.

Hilda turned to look at Jenn and after a brief moment, smiled brightly. “Ah, my dear, quite simple really.” She did not say anything more for a moment, and Jenn wondered if the healer was trying to think up an excuse. Jenn simply stared questioningly at her.

Hilda nodded. “Yes, quite simple, really. This”—she gestured to an older man beside her—“is my grandfather, Gamos. He is a Voyager and wanted some assistance, so he brought me here.”

“A Voyager?” Jenn asked. She had no idea what that was.

“Yes, my child,” Gamos said, extending his hand to Jenn in greeting. Jenn shook it, looking at him and waiting for an explanation. “A Voyager is an animage that specializes in travel, both within and between planes of existence. As such, with sufficient training and practice, we can traverse vast distances within moments.”

Jenn shook her head slightly. “Okay, never heard of those, but then I’d never met an animage until a few weeks ago, and now I know four of them. I guess it makes sense that the talent runs in the family.”

Gamos smiled and nodded in agreement.

“So why then are you all here?” Jenn asked.

Gamos glanced to Hilda and then back to Jenn. “Stevos and Teragdor here”—he gestured to the young man and the half-orc—“alerted me to the arrival of D’Orcs here in Murgatroy. Concerned that maleficence might be afoot, specifically a raid or invasion, I thought it best to pick up a healer en route. Thus I stopped in Freehold and asked Hilda to accompany me.”

Jenn nodded but said nothing for a moment, digesting this. In essence, they were here for the same reason Jenn and the Grove people were; both had had the same concerns about a raid and dead people. “Well, that makes sense,” she finally said.

“And what about you, dear? I thought you were to be hunting down a defunct goddess ensconced inside a pyramid or something?” Hilda asked.

Jenn grinned at Hilda’s description of their expedition. “We were heading to Noajar first and had stopped by Murgandor to get the lay of the land from some agents the Grove had there. While there, rangers came alerting us to the D’Orcs so we came to investigate, having the same concern as you about a raid and casualties.”

Hilda grinned. “What happy fortune-stance! We shall all have to have dinner together!”

“You are with the Grove?” the half-orc asked Jenn rather cautiously.

“Well, I am traveling with Trevin D’Vils, Enchantress of the Grove, aboard a Grove cloudship, but technically I am with the Council of Wizardry, I guess.” Jenn frowned slightly, not exactly sure who to say she was with. Technically, that would be Lenamare, and thus she supposed the Council, but it was a bit weird.

“So you are with the alvar?” the half-orc asked hesitantly.

Jenn looked at the half-orc more closely; he was wearing a robe and had a pendant with the symbol of Tiernon on it. “I’m sorry, but is that the symbol of Tiernon?” she asked, changing the subject away from the alvar.

The half-orc reached out a hand in greeting. “Ahh, yes. As Hilda mentioned, I am Teragdor, itinerant priest of Tiernon.”