The Heavenly Host

“Uhm, yeah. Why would I lie about that?”

“Because you are a demon?” Talarius retorted as if stating the obvious.

Rupert sighed. “You really are a nut job.” Talarius had the feeling the demon was shaking its head. “Believe what you will, it’s been a solid day for the rest of us.”

Talarius sighed to himself. The demon probably was not lying; he was just so tired still. However, he had been in a lot of pain, so recovery would be slow. Further, the demons had said he would regenerate here. He had no idea how that would work, but he was a bit better now. “I’m going to light my armor so I can see. I’m not attacking, demon,” he told Rupert. Really not a good idea to accidentally start a fight at this moment. He could have used his visor, but felt that the fewer strengths he revealed now, the better his advantage later.

“Sure,” Rupert replied.

Talarius willed his armor to light the room dimly. He did not want to turn it to full power, lest he blind himself with the unaccustomed light. He looked around the cave he and Rupert were standing in. It was large, quite large, but very sparsely decorated. A giant throne crudely carved of stone, a horribly shoddy stone table; and a few objects that he guessed were carved shelves high up. There did not seem to be much on them. Hmm. Was that a dragon tooth on the top shelf? Odd. Of course, it could just be another demon’s tooth. It was higher than his reach, so he frankly did not care.

Talarius started walking stiffly towards the entrance. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to take a look at where you’re holding me prisoner.” He glanced at Rupert.

The demon shrugged. “Not like you can go anywhere; we’re very high up and in a rather empty part of the Abyss.”

Talarius nodded and continued up the long, winding tunnel. He barely remembered coming down, he had been so beat. Eventually he reached the cave mouth. There was a reasonably-sized ledge outside the mouth. The demon had been correct. There was a very nasty precipice at the end of the ledge, and no easy route to climb down or up. He would not be leaving here without the sash. Praise Tiernon he had had it on. Of course, he nearly always wore it in full combat gear. One only needed to fall off a flying horse once to realize the need for a reliable backup plan.

Talarius shook his head. War Arrow would be nearly frantic at this point. He imagined Ruiden, his sword, would also be quite bothered. The sword would be very annoyed he had gone off to the Abyss without taking it. Ruiden enjoyed cleaving demons more than nearly anything else.

The knight sighed and looked around. They were very high up on the side of a mountain in what had to be one of the most rugged mountain ranges he had ever seen. Between that and the oppressive, omnipresent red light from the disturbingly surreal sky, the landscape was almost intimidating. He tried to rub the bridge of his nose, an old habit, but that didn’t work well when wearing a great helm.

“Ahoy there! Rupert!” A loud, accented voice came from the sky over his right shoulder. He turned to see a man-sized demon with large bat wings and an extremely craggy face coming in for a landing. Talarius backed up to the other side of the ledge. There was a very short, pudgy and hideous fiend behind this one.

Rupert came out, scowled horribly and then clapped his hands as if happy. “Boggy! Great to see you!” These demons had seriously weird emotional responses. He would have never guessed that that horrendous scowl was meant to be welcoming.

“I see you’ve got the prize!” The first demon landed on the ledge and patted Rupert on the shoulder.

“Unholy miracles!” The short, ugly little demon screeched, staring at Talarius. “Are you sure it’s safe to have that thing running around unbound? I’ve heard that Paladins are extremely dangerous.”

“I’m not a Paladin; I’m a Knight Rampant!” Talarius glared at the annoying demon.

“Who is this, Boggy?” Rupert asked, gesturing to the ugly demon.

“Oh, right-o! Sorry about that. Where are my manners?” The demon that Rupert had called “Boggy” shook its head. “This is an old friend of mine, Estrebrius. His accursed master has some sort of business proposal for Tom.”

Rupert looked at the demon named Boggy as if he did not understand; he then turned his gaze to Estrebrius, who was suddenly looking very uncomfortable. “You mean his accursed master, as in the wizard he is bound to, wants a deal with Tom?” Rupert seemed rather incredulous.

Talarius found it extremely odd himself; however, everything at the moment was odd. It was widely suspected that wizards had secret deals with these demons. This would of course, prove it. If he ever got out of here, the Rod would have good cause to take out all wizards when they were located. Although, thinking on it, taking out the entire city of wizards might be difficult. Clearly, they would have to plan carefully.

“I’ve never heard of wizards wanting ‘deals’ with demons before. Usually, it’s just do this or suffer!” Rupert said.