The Heavenly Host

“Eh, not sorry,” Tizzy said, looking down at the knight. “Yes, it’s a gift or a curse. But it’s useful for meeting people.” Tizzy went silent and then suddenly turned his head a little and stared. “There we go, the next boom tunnel!” He started moving faster in the direction he had looked. “You would think that after all those welcoming committees, I’d be able to get a date, but nooo!”

It took them another five minutes or so to get to the boom tunnel. Tizzy quickly moved up to the boom tunnel arch and placed his upper right hand on the plate; he then closed his eyes in concentration. This lasted about twenty seconds and then a single, low woohhhmmm vibrated the ground and air around them. About fifteen seconds later, a second woohhhmmm came, and then after about ten more seconds, a third, and then within a few more seconds, the regular throbbing of a boom tunnel could be felt all around them.

Woohhhmmm... woohhhmmm... woohhhmmm... woohhhmmm... The tunnel vibrated as various undulating shades of red filled the previously empty archway.

“Tiernon, but these things set my teeth on edge!” Talarius muttered.

Boggy sidled up to the knight. “Well, that’s no wonder. It’s like your entire suit is vibrating and rattling with the throbs. That’s why you shouldn’t wear clothes.”

“I don’t know,” Reggie said. “I can feel it throughout my whole body, and I think it’s a big turn-on.”

Tom glanced down at him without thinking. Yes, Reggie was apparently enjoying the “good vibrations.” Sheesh. Tom shook his head.

Tizzy was still concentrating at the archway’s panel. Suddenly the undulating red light was replaced by undulating black light and the throbbing suddenly became much more intense and audibly quite loud. Within about thirty seconds, all were covering their ears as the throbbing was getting almost painful. Talarius’s armor was very clearly rattling now, as were Estrebrius’s teeth in his grinning mouth. He did seem to be enjoying this outing.

Suddenly there was a huge throb, the ground shook beneath their feet, and with that, the boom tunnel’s blackness turned back to red and the throbbing slowly began to subside to normal.

Tizzy let out a loud sigh, as if quite tired, and then removed his hand from the plate. “Voilà!” he exclaimed, pronouncing it with a hard V sound. “Voilà, what a toila! Yada yada yada... I did it!” He was grinning from ear to ear, quite proud of himself. “You will note that I, a humble fiend, can do something that most greater demons can’t do, and a few of the archdemons don’t even know how to do!”

“How is that? I would think the archdemons would know something like this,” Tom said.

Tizzy shrugged. “Most aren’t old enough to have been around when the boom tunnels were built and so never learned. To be honest, it doesn’t need to be done that often, so most likely they were never taught and the method was forgot.” Tizzy waved his hands around. “You’d be surprised how common Antefalken’s assumption is that boom tunnels are always on.”

“How long ago were the boom tunnels built?” Rupert asked.

Tizzy rolled his head. “Sheesh, that’s a good one. It was a really, really long time ago. The princes hired sleestak wizards to come in and install them all around the Abyss.”

“Sleestak wizards?” Tom asked, puzzled. Antefalken and the others were looking equally puzzled.

“Yeah, you know: wizards who are sleestaks.” Tizzy shrugged.

“By sleestak do you mean a sort of human-shaped insect-lizard race with big black eyes?” Tom asked, thinking about certain really old children’s programs and a horrible movie.

“You’ve met some!” Tizzy said, surprised. “That’s impressive. They are really hard to get a hold of, always jumping around time and space and such. You almost need a police box to catch them. DeLoreans aren’t fast enough.” Tizzy was shaking his head. “I don’t think I’ve seen one in” — he paused and suddenly stared around at the others — “a really long time.”

Tom raised an eyebrow. Did Tizzy not want to reveal his age? How old was the octopod? Could it be that maybe Tizzy was not so much crazy as simply senile?

“Anyway, let’s head on through!” Tizzy said and immediately turned and marched into the boom tunnel. Estrebrius shrugged, smiled and flew in after him.

“Talarius?” Tom offered. The knight walked through, followed by Boggy, Reggie and Rupert. Tom brought up the rear.

∼

Randolf was hunched over his large notebook, working on formula translations between Lenamare’s demon banishment wards and his own project. Randolf really hated to admit it, but Lenamare was damn good. Amazingly good. Randolf was no slouch; some of the greatest djinn masters had trained him, but this was absolute mastery. He supposed it should not be a surprise.