Snake Eyes

I reached the clearing first. It had been the site of countless village festivals. We Long Loftingers even had our own fertility rituals which we combined with worship of the Great Father, performing them to ensure healthy crops and bounteous harvests. Nevertheless, the clearing had never seen such a sight as this.

Several oil lamps formed a ring of dusky golden light. Within it, the womenfolk—and there were many of them— each imbued with some admixture of wantonness, temptation and curiosity, danced in a circle around the supine demon’s body. In the centre of the circle one of the women straddled the demon, impaling herself on its most evil horn. I recognised the look of pleasure on her face, although there was an utter abandonment there I’d never seen before. As the other village men arrived beside me and stopped in shock at the sight before them, Velvet let out a carnal scream of pleasure and collapsed sideways off the creature’s knobbly totem. Another of the women pulled her away by the hair and squatted to take her place.

Prattle was standing right beside me when he muttered,

“Dear Father above, she was a sweet one. Now look what filth she’s become.”

Velvet’s comment from the previous day, about seeing Prattle for spiritual guidance, suddenly took on greater meaning. There wasn’t time to enquire about the details, however.

Wiggery asked,

“What the Hell are we going to do to stop it?”

“There’s only one thing we can do,” said I. “Two of you go back and bring the demon’s head to me. And mind your fingers.”

“Isn’t that a bit dangerous?” asked Prattle.

“Yes, very. But we have to do it. The demon has to see what I’m going to do. We’re going to make a deal with it.”

“A deal with a demon? Do you want to spend the rest of eternity in Hell?”

“No, I certainly don’t. That’s why we’re doing this. Who’s going to get the head?”

“I will,” said Puff Wiggery, a nervous eye cast towards his still dancing wife.

“Me too,” said Rickett, uncertain whether his wife had had her turn by then or not.

“Make it quick.” They ran off into the night. “The rest of you get down and keep as quiet as you can. We don’t want to do anything to disturb them too early.”

I watched the orgy progress. Velvet had recovered and was dancing in the circle again. I assumed that meant she was planning to have another bite of the fiendish cherry. It didn’t matter to me; the damage was already done. The important factor was that the dancing women’s trance was so strong they had no inkling of our arrival.

“What is this plan you’ve got?” asked Prattle as we crouched in the dry undergrowth.

“We’re going to cut the demon’s tail off.”

“What? Its tickle tail?”

“No. Its demon tail. That’s the thing that demons fear most and a demon with no tail has no power over humans. If we can get its tail, we’ll have all the bargaining power we need.”

“You’re insane.”

“I’m only going to do this once, Leopold, so enjoy the experience.” I passed him the Ledger. “Read it and you’ll see.”

“I can’t read this. It’s an arcane book of occult nonsense.”

“Read it. Then give it right back to me.”

So he read, the pages an inch or two from his face but glowing very faintly in the night, enough that he could see the words. When he was finished he handed the book back to me without saying a word.

Moments later Wiggery and Rickett returned with the head of the demon.

“Keep it facing away for the moment,” I said. “Now then, any volunteers for the next part?”

No one spoke.

“There’s no shame in that. It’s a dangerous job. You could die a horrible death and go to Hell, so I understand. Last chance,” said I. “Anyone.”

I looked across at Prattle.

“You still have Cleaver’s knife, I take it?”

He drew the blade out from his black robes and it gleamed even in the darkness. I leaned in close to him.

“You know, doing this would be great for your reputation. And this is still a religious matter. I will stand aside for you if you want to take the job.”

Prattle only shook his head and handed me the knife, handle first. I looked at the edge of the blade and the thickness of the steel behind it and hoped it was the right tool for the job. More than that, I prayed I had the strength to do what was required.

“If this works, we give the demon back its head and keep the tail.”

“What’s to stop it taking the tail away from us once it can see what it’s doing?”

“You’ve read The Ledger, Prattle. A demon without its tail has no power.”

Bargaining