“I have given it the impression that we are its most trusted friends, and that now it should now return to its home.” I looked at the shiny black demon sceptically. But it was no longer grovelling upon the ground. Instead, it had risen to its feet and was now grasping for Jaramel’s hand with what appeared to be a smile upon its face!
“How long will it last for?” I asked.
Jaramel shrugged. “A day at most.”
The now playful little demon, who had just managed to secure its four-fingered hand around Jaramel’s, was actively encouraging the magic user to go with him by pulling him gently northwards.
“We should tie a rope around it, so it doesn’t get too far ahead,” I suggested.
“Will it let you do that?” asked Baram worriedly as he skilfully avoided the demons attempt to clasp its other hand around his own.
“Baram, are you saying that as a friend and my most trusted, that if it were required, you would not let me tie a rope to you?”
“Damn right!” nodded Baram.
“Well we just have to take our chances,” I smiled, “Ackrulas said that the Soul Crystal lies somewhere within this land of fire and rocks, and I’m willing to bet my last gold piece that these little demons know something of it.”
Baram nodded. “I’ll get the rope.”
Ten minutes later, and we were being led eagerly through the fiery landscape by way of a short, glossy black demon who was tied to one end of a rope, and I thought I had experienced just about everything.
Tying the rope around the demon’s waist had not caused a problem, but the one who holding the other end of the rope certainly had one. Baram had initially taken charge of the line until the demon began hissing at him. At that point, it was quickly passed to Jaramel who it seems was much more favourable to the demon’s liking. I had thought of several humorous quips as I watched the encouraging creature tug on the rope, as it eagerly hurried Jaramel along in the direction of its travels. But for Jaramel’s humility I decided to save them for a later date, and then only share them with Baram.
For nearly an hour we obediently followed the demon’s lead as it led us past what I hoped was the last of the smelly craters, and then eastwards along a well-trodden dry riverbed, but our general direction was always towards the northeast.
Then, as I was beginning to wonder just how far this thing had travelled to collect its berries, it stopped. It then proceeded to babble excitedly to itself as it jumped up and down on the spot whilst pointing off towards a large grouping of craggy rocks not far to the north. It was nearly home.
To me, the grouping of rocks looked suspicious. The far right end of the range was curved, almost like a protective wall. Personally, I did not like the way it totally concealed whatever may be lying within, but it was to here our demon had pointed. Experience had taught me early on that the best way to get into a place was not necessarily through the front door. I eyed the rest of the rocky terrain, looking for an alternative route as it casually sloped in varying height from east to west. That is where we would make our approach.
“We should circle around and approach from the west side,” I suggested aloud “then we can follow rocks until we arrive at the eastern edge of whatsoever is within there.” I indicated towards the same place as the demon had.
“I am sensing something of great power coming from within that place,” said Jaramel.
“The Soul Crystal?” I asked.
Jaramel nodded, “I believe so. It’s strange, but I have never experienced anything like this before.”
I responded with a nod, I knew it would have been weird to agree, but I too could feel the presence of the crystal. The feeling of dread I had felt before was now replaced with a sense of anticipation, almost as if the thing knew that we were coming for it, and knew that our purpose was to set it free. It was a worrying comfort.
The only one of us who objected to the new change of direction was the only one of us who was less than four feet tall. Our little demon friend had displayed its displeasure at our decision by first folding its arms, and then defiantly refusing to move. Jaramel, however, overcame this little annoyance by offering the creature a piece of dried meat, this then had the desired effect as it happily took hold of the food before continuing to follow our lead.
“Trees,” said Baram surprisingly after another twenty minutes of slow riding.
I peered past Baram’s horse into the vastness of the surrounding landscape. He was not wrong; some quarter mile distant was what appeared to be the blurred image of three small leafless trees, I could not imagine how they had survived under such conditions. But as we neared, the gruesome reality of their true identity was shockingly revealed to us.
The trees were not trees at all, but instead sharpened poles, and impaled on each of the poles was a corpse.
Baram shook his head as he eyed the trio sorrowfully, “Poor souls,” he said sincerely, “may the Gods look after them in the afterlife.” This was not like Baram at all. In the past, he would not have even bothered stopping, but instead would have just continued in silent disgust. More evidence of Ranak-Lore’s softening?
Jaramel meanwhile had moved Udos close to the man on the central spike and was now paying particular interest to him. He certainly looked the better off of the three, at least he still had most of his skin attached, and he still had a recognisable face…if only barely.
“Strange…he doesn’t look like a northerner does he?” I commented.
Jaramel’s head went to the ground; it was then that I noticed the three broken spears, the same as our demon had carried at the base of each of the poles.
“He is not,” said Jaramel sullenly, “his name was Galforth Belung…Sir Galforth. He was one of the King’s finest, and a former acquaintance of mine.”
Jaramel’s eyes fell accusingly onto the demon. The strange little creature stared innocently back. It then turned to gaze upon the bodies of the three, then turned again to converse with us in its unintelligible tongue before ending its speech with a grin. The smile reminded me of the ones Ackrulas use to give.
Jaramel tugged so sharply on the rope as he turned away, that it actually caused the creature to stumble as it moved. Baram looked as if he were about to say something. I did not know whether it concerned the demon or the bodies on the poles, but I indicated with a shake of my head that now was not the time.
Leaving the bodies behind us we headed north-west once more, but I now followed Jaramel with a few extra paces between us. Hopefully, this would provide the magic user with some room for his thoughts.
Soon afterwards we arrived at the first scatterings of stones that indicated the start of the craggy range, and shortly after that, we arrived at the base of the rocks themselves. An immense natural barrier, consisting of misshapen boulders, and would-be mountains stretched right across the wasteland from left to right and our intended road to the Soul Crystal.
The light was still with us for another four hours at least; we took shelter from its harsh glare by continuing our journey eastwards under the pleasing shadow of the rocks. This proved somewhat unsatisfactory to our special companion, who it seemed much preferred to walk in the heat of the sun rather than in the gloom of the shadows. To me that seemed strange, I would have thought it to have been the other way around. Our progress after that was painstakingly slow, as we had to constantly weave our way between and around a forever-changing formation of rocks, until finally, by late evening, I saw our goal in sight. It was also the first time that I saw others of the demon’s kind.
Out in the wilderness, far to the northeast, tiny black shapes were making their way across the rugged landscape all heading in the direction of a strange curvature of rocks ahead. If we had held our original course, we would have met them head on. I took the time to congratulate myself upon my foresight. A short distance further and we dismounted at a suitable location to walk the last hundred or so yards on foot. As he dismounted, Baram looked across to the demon that had taken to sitting o
n a rock in a most disgruntled fashion. It appeared to be getting quite fed up with this game that we played.
“What do you want to do with, you know who?” Baram asked.
I looked to Jaramel, to see if the mage had come to any decisions concerning the creature’s fate, but his continued silence told me that he had not.
I shrugged at Baram’s question. “We shall bind him to one of the rocks here until our task is done. Then we can either leave him,” I looked slyly across to Jaramel, “or set him free. It matters not.”
Baram nodded his great helmeted head and made a move towards the creature before suddenly stopping. “Err…Taragon… I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind giving me a hand to bind the creature.”
“A hand?” I questioned whilst looking at the three foot nothing demon.
“Baram,” I said surprisingly, “don’t tell me you can’t handle one little demon.”
Baram’s face suddenly angered as he frowned, “Well, of course I can…it's just…well, it’s just that he is a slippery little fellow!”
“Come then,” I smiled whilst slapping my companion on the back, “let’s tackle this terrible foe together.”
One surprised and very complaining demon binding later and Baram, Jaramel and myself had moved along the remainder of the rocks to stand at the base of the formidable curving barrier of stone. I could only imagine that the proper entrance to whatever lay beyond was somewhere south-east of where we currently stood. Well, at least there were no demons to be found on this side of the rock wall. Looking up at the obstruction, I imagined it to be a forty-foot climb to its top. It did not look to be a challenging hike and one that appeared more favourable by a sloping incline. Looking across to Baram and Jaramel I gave a nod, and we started our ascent. As it happened, our climb proved to be a little harder than I had expected. Jaramel once caught the hem of his cloak on an ensnaring rock, and Baram almost fell when his footing gave way. But without too much further trouble we soon reached the top, only to step out onto a surprisingly flat surface. Bewildered by this, I looked to my left and right and viewed the continuation of this surface as it extending some ten paces wide right around the rim of the crater! We were standing on the rim of a massive crater!
I could now see it in its entirety. It looked similar to the ones that contained the pools of bubbling fire that we had seen, only on a much grander scale. A sudden thought entered my mind. What if this crater contained fire, and the strange creatures actually lived in it? No, it would be too ridiculous to even envisage the idea…wouldn’t it? I breathed in through my nose. No smell of rotten eggs…at least that was a good sign. Leaving my companions to marvel at the crater where they stood, I moved quickly to its inner edge to view whatever was there to greet me.
What I saw below made me jump back in a heartbeat. We had found the demons village.
Falling to my stomach, I turned and signalled that Baram and Jaramel should do the same. As my two companions crawled cautiously forwards, I turned to view the scene below.
Huts were the first thing that surprised me. I would never have guessed that creatures like these would have constructed such dwellings to live in! I was half expecting some sort of cave or at least a dark hole in the ground. But no, there they stood, mixed in with the myriad of moving black shapes were at least fifty, small, round wooden huts, each the same as the next, and all slightly raised from the ground by way of supporting stilts. Many of the dwellings had grey smoke curling upwards from holes in tapered rooftops. Only the Gods would know where they obtained the wood for the village’s construction, but there it stood.
The second thing to startle me about demons was how much they were behaving like a typical village community. As I continued my unseen vigil, I was dumbfounded to see one particular demon take down what appeared to be a tired and worn animal skin hanging over its doorway, only to replace it with a much newer, fresher-looking one. There were also other similarities to be seen as well, like the demon that was sitting in the entrance of another hut, busily sharpening a spear with the flat of a stone, or the one that was currently taking a bath in a small wooden tub of dark coloured water. The more I looked, the more I saw, and to be honest, it was slightly disconcerting.
“Look at them all,” said Baram quietly astonished beside me, “there must be a hundred of them.”
“At least,” I replied, and then I noticed something else. Looking down at the tiny black figures going about their business, it was impossible to distinguish one from another. Each looked an exact replica of the next, right down to the little piece of brown leather that covered their genitalia, apart from the one having the bath of course, as it was currently exposing its bottom at us.
Jaramel said nothing, but his head was turned towards the northern part of the village, almost as if he was looking for something there.
Then without warning a gong rang out from somewhere below. This instantly had a strange effect on the entire inhabitants of the village. Almost immediately upon hearing the sound, the tiny black demons had frozen like statues, before moving off like ants on the march towards where it had originated.
“Have we been spotted?” Baram asked surprised, as he looked first to Jaramel then to me.
I shook my head, “No I don’t think so, see they are moving away from us.” It was then that I noticed a much larger hut positioned at the village edge. It was to here that the demons were being summoned.
“Come,” I said whilst slowly backing away from the crater's rim, “Let’s see if we can better our view. But keep on the outer edge!” I cautioned.
One careful repositioning later, and we approached the inner rim at a more desirable location. The demons below us had all gathered before a large round hut. They stood motionless with eyes facing forward, apparently waiting for someone or something to emerge from within the dwelling. This particular hut looked to be of some importance. It was constructed in the same way as the rest of the village, but this one was easily six times as large. It was also decorated on its outside with many hanging hides and strange symbols that had been painted in the colour of blood. As I watched, the crowd of demons suddenly parted. Two spear-carrying demons approached walking on either side of a third. The one in the centre seemed to be under some sort of duress, a guarded march was easily recognisable to my eyes when I saw one.
Upon reaching the large hut, the centre demon was unceremoniously thrown to the ground just as another gong sounded. The two guards hearing its call then left their positions by the demon’s side and moved to take up flanking positions either side of great hut’s entrance. A third gong sounded, and three things happened at once. Firstly, all the waiting demons in the crowd instantly fell to their knees and bowed their heads to the earth, all except the one that had been escorted in by the guards, it remained kneeling whilst nervously eyeing the hut’s entrance. Secondly, the two demon guards had separated a hide covering the entrance of the great hut to make an opening. And thirdly, out of the opening had walked what I took to be to the demon’s Chieftain. The only reason why I had come to this conclusion was that it was the only creature in the village to be wearing a bone necklace and a headdress of feathers! But what it was wearing was irrelevant, as my eyes were instantly drawn to the glowing object it proudly carried in its right hand. There, sitting aloft, on what looked to be like a gnarled staff of wood… was an illuminating crystal of vibrant green light.
“The Soul Crystal!” gasped Jaramel excitedly as he raised himself up, only to have the swift hand of Baram bring him back to his senses, and to the earth.
Meanwhile, upon seeing his lord and master, the demon captive had immediately broken down and begun pleading in its incoherent tongue. This was met by the raised hand of the Chieftain, which quickly brought about the creature’s silence.
I then watched attentively as the two spear-carrying guards resumed their original positions by the creature’s side, and the gathered crowd raised their heads from the ground but remained kneeling. With his attentive audien
ce now in check, the Chieftain began walking back and forwards in front of the apparent prisoner, whilst hurling an increasing crescendo of babbling remarks in its direction, none of which sounded too good. There was a lot of pointing, and a few staff raises from the Chieftain, who by now, had worked himself up into a pretty good frenzy, he then ended all his apparent accusations by uttering a single word. This then brought what I took to be a cackle of joy by the onlookers, and a look of terror on the prisoner’s face. Sentencing was apparently over.
Moving to stand above the demon prisoner, the Chieftain raised the glowing staff high for all to see, the guards took a cautious step back, and a deathly quiet descended upon the crowd. The Chieftain then lowered the Soul Crystal slowly towards the head of the petrified prisoner, who by now had resorted to cowering into a ball, whilst holding its hands protectively over its head. It helped him not…
One blinding flash of green light later and the demon prisoner had disappeared into nothingness.
“By the Gods!” I whispered.
“Interesting,” mused Jaramel “the Soul Crystal is fully charged, but it still takes more life.”
“What a weapon,” added Baram admiringly, “why, with a weapon like that we could even defeat Vorgannon himself!”
I smiled at his remark. “Yes, and all we would have to do my friend is get him to shake hands with the glowing end first.” Baram frowned darkly at my jest.
“Come,” I said not wanting to risk our luck any further, “let’s head back to the horses and rethink our strategy.”
Upon our return, I was dismayed to find that our captive had escaped his bonds and fled our makeshift encampment. Baram walked over holding what little remained of the rope that we had used to bind it with.
“Gone!” I said disbelievingly.
Baram nodded grimly. “Chewed right through it by the looks of it,” he said.
“Well that doesn’t help us,” I glanced towards the crater half expecting to see an army of black shapes suddenly come bursting from within.
Taragon Stein: The Search For The Soul Crystal Page 35