The Heavenly Host

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.”

Asmodeus looked at her askance, puzzled by her meaning.

Chapter 105

The guards at the gates to Murgatroy had observed the interaction in the wargtown and apparently decided this rather odd lot was safe to enter. From what Tal Gor’s parents and others had told him, including Soo An, Murgatroy was known to welcome more than its fair share of suspicious travelers. Which was all well and good, since he doubted the town had ever seen characters more unusual than the D’Orcs. Demons were always frowned upon, of course, but unbound, winged demons that looked like orcs and went about of their own accord? He was sure that was unheard of. He was thus pleasantly surprised that they were not stopped.

On second thought, Tal Gor realized they were a hunting party of nineteen orcs and nineteen D’Orcs, Zerg Fel Far and Fed Tal having stayed behind in the wargtown to watch the gear and the D’Wargs. He had to admit, one would have to be rather crazy to try to stop such a group, especially when they were coming in peace to buy lots of stuff.