The Heavenly Host

“No... If only!” Estrebrius looked up, dropping his arms to the table. “It’s worse than that. He is completely insane! And he’s given me an insane task that I can’t possibly complete!”

Boggy nodded. “Cor blimey, I hate it when they do that. We aren’t djinns, for the Concordenax’s sake!” Boggy sighed. “So what does he want you to do?”

“He wants me to locate that demon lord that kidnapped the knight yesterday and set up a meeting between himself and the demon lord!” Estrebrius raised his hands in the air and shook them, as if crying out to a heaven that certainly was not there for him or any demon.

“Oh, is that all?” Boggy shrugged. “Well, I’d have to admit that does seem sort of stupid, even for an accursed master. However, if that is all you need, my lad, I can set it up.”

Estrebrius dropped his arms to the table and stared at Boggy as if Boggy had just gone insane as well.

∼

Tom, Rupert and Tizzy were sitting outside the cave while Tizzy regaled them with tales of his accursed masters. Suddenly Tizzy stopped his nearly continuous monologue, and his nose started twitching. In fact, it started twitching up, down, right, left, and then his face began scrunching and contorting in all sorts of weird and vaguely disturbing ways.

“Tizzy? Are you okay?” Rupert asked, putting his hand on Tizzy’s upper shoulder.

“IT’S LIKE BUTTAH!” Tizzy suddenly shrieked in his yenta voice. Rupert, having never heard this voice so up close and personal before, jumped so high he fell off the ledge and it took him a few seconds to fly back onto it. At that point, Tizzy had reared up on his rear legs and was sniffing in all sorts of directions as if trying to locate a scent. He really was quite tall when he stood all the way up, Tom reflected.

“What is it?” Tom asked.

“Well, it ain’t popcorn, but it’s gotta lotta buttah!” Tizzy said again in his yenta voice. Rupert looked at Tom with concern.

Tom shrugged, and then he thought back to his own arrival. “Tizzy, are you saying that you smell a new arrival?” he asked, suppressing a belch. Even talking about butter made his indigestion act up.

“Yes! Very strange... I did not see this one coming. New arrivals aren’t usually this frequent.” Tizzy shook his head, still sniffing. “I think you will want to come with me, Tom!” he said, sounding something like a yenta matchmaker.

“We’ll all go!” Rupert said with excitement. “What’s a new arrival?” He was looking back and forth between the two demons.

“Can’t you handle this on your own, Tizzy?” Tom asked. He did not want to take Rupert and have to explain what a new arrival was. That would complicate his own story.

Tizzy scrunched his eyes and looked at Tom, then looked away and made other weird facial expressions. “Nope, think you need to come with me. Boggy’s not here and he normally goes with me.”

Tom sighed, and then remembered Talarius sleeping in the cave. “Rupert, we can’t leave Talarius alone. If he wakes up and no one is around, he’s liable to do something crazy.”

“So?” Rupert asked, realizing he was about to be stuck babysitting.

“So I don’t need him freaking out any worse than he probably already is.” He really was not sure what the knight’s mental state was.

“But I want to come with you guys!” Rupert complained.

“I know, but we are getting stretched too thin. We have commitments to honor, which sort of happens when you kidnap someone. You become responsible for them and their safety. Plus other demons are probably looking for him; I need you to defend him if any of them show up!”

“But he tried to kill you, and he did kill me!” Rupert complained. “Why do we care about his safety?”

“Because we are the better people. We have honor and integrity. It’s what we do,” Tom told him sternly.

Rupert frowned and made an annoyed face. “Okay, but don’t be gone too long! If a demon army shows up, I’m not going to be able to protect him.”

Tom shook his head. “We shouldn’t be more than a couple hours, I hope.” He had no idea, but this would force them to limit the time. He really did not expect any demons to come looking for Talarius; only Antefalken, Boggy and Tizzy knew where he lived. It was not like any of them would be playing tour guide.

∼

Tizzy had taken off at nearly warp speed and Tom really had to work to keep up. It was amazing how fast that little demon could move when he was in a hurry. They quickly left the mountain range and then headed south, or at least what Tom thought of as south, over the giant plain with the pillars and fireballs. Within about fifteen minutes, they were crossing the Styx and continuing on. Tom really had no good sense of direction and was not quite sure how Tizzy knew where he was going. It was also odd that Tizzy could smell a new arrival from this many miles away.