by Langland, J.
Together they all chanted, "Embodiae sig fallum, Dominae sed nostrum, deskripten sig fallum, verti et sebuam. Bound unto forever Tomasedwardperkinje, hielphistos sorbum amenetorum." With the final pronouncement, the ring flashed a bright white light. Tom felt his pupils automatically contract to block the light, but other than that he felt absolutely nothing.
The three wizards stared at Tom intently, as if trying to determine something. Jehenna put the ring on the middle finger of her right hand and pointed it at Tom. He winced, fearing that more pain was coming, although none did. His reaction apparently satisfied her, for she nodded. "Demon," she said, "kneel before me."
Not really knowing what was going on, but not really wanting to feel the pain that Lenamare had already inflicted, specifically, not wanting to test whether or not he could face it down again, he complied. Again, seeming satisfied, she nodded.
"Any other tests?" Lenamare asked.
"No, I think we've demonstrated that it works," Jehenna said. The old man simply nodded his head in agreement with Jehenna.
"Very well then, Jehenna, if you would care to do the honors?"
"Certainly," Jehenna waved her arms toward Tom and said, "be gone now, Demon; get thee hence, return to thy own plane until we should have need of thee. Depart in peace, and take none that is ours with you." At this apparent dismissal, Tom relaxed, knowing he would soon be out of this tower and away from these people. As he relaxed and imagined his ledge, the tower room began to disappear around him. Shortly, he was once again standing outside his new cave.
Chapter 11
"God, those people really piss me off," Tom said to himself as he looked out from his cave, "with their mixed up thee's and thou's and their pseudo-Latin mumbo jumbo.” Slowly he turned around and descended into the cave to explore it. "Would I like to show them a thing or two." As he descended, he thought about this last encounter; and the more he thought about it the angrier he got. Just as in any confrontation situation, where one feels one is the loser, Tom replayed all different scenarios, envisioning how things might have gone. If only he could have broken the barrier, if only he had thought of this, of that, of several different things.
He wandered down the cave, thinking of all the things he might do next time, to teach Lenamare and his toadies a lesson. He let out a lot of mental steam and frustration, knowing he'd probably never get a chance to exercise his dreams of vengeance. It was, he thought, just like the bullies; he had dreamed and dreamed of someday getting even, but he never did, and now never would. The closest he'd ever come to doing anything about the bullies in Junior High had been to take Tae Kwon Do lessons for over a year, before giving them up out of laziness. Occasionally he berated himself for not going further, only a few more months and he'd have had a black belt, but he'd gotten mad at people in the club and decided he didn't want to put up with the lessons and a few of the other students.
The tunnel was, Tom guessed, pretty dark inside; he could no longer see light from the outside; however, he had no trouble seeing. His demon eyes, he realized, could see very well in complete darkness, better even than a cat. Everything was in black and white, but it seemed almost as light as a very overcast day, and different objects stood out in sharp contrast to one another. Here and there the passage would narrow or widen and twist or turn. "Good grief this tunnel is long, I guess I've found a pretty good cave." Suddenly the cave opened up into a larger cavern. Nice, Tom thought looking around the cave, he was still too wound up to really appreciate the cave.
Lancing pain!
"Shit!" Tom yelled as what felt like huge knives ripped into his right arm and wing area. The blow sent him off balance and forward. He glanced behind him and saw something. What it was he couldn't be sure, but it was big, bigger by far than himself, and it had a huge claw with which it had tried to slice him.
A five foot long snout was suddenly in his face, as the creature repositioned itself, blocking the only visible exit to the cavern. The snout was very reptilian, and had huge teeth and mesmerizing eyes. Behind the head was a long curving neck which eventually merged with a large scaly body with wings the size of theRoc models Tom had seen in museums, and claws that looked like giant swords. Shit, thought Tom, it looks like a dragon. Quickly, Tom looked around the room, but he could see no other tunnels leading out. Since he was still wound up over his encounter with Lenamare, and because the pain had given him a massive adrenaline rush, and since the fight or flight syndrome was definitely going full bore, and he couldn't do the flight part, he decided to fight. Trying to think as little as possible about what he was doing, Tom put all his body strength into a back kick right to the nose of the dragon.
Crunch, was the sound from the dragon's nose scales. The dragon reared back and bellowed a horrendous roar of pain. Tom had forgotten how his bull-like legs were very well suited for back kicks, and how much stronger he now was. Put both of those facts together with the Tae Kwon Do he had learned, and he supposed he must have a pretty powerful kick.
Acrid smelling, steaming blood spurted out of the dragon's nose. Infuriated, it opened its mouth and let loose a gusher of liquid. The liquid fell on Tom's hide, and burned. Did it ever burn, it felt like he was on fire. Every nerve screamed in pain. Without pausing to think, Tom leaped forward swinging his right hand in an open karate chop at the dragon's neck, just as his instructor had taught him, what seemed like so long ago. He spread his fingers slightly, to get better advantage of his long nails. Tom knew that if he stopped to think rationally that he would probably run, even though there was nowhere to go, but he was too keyed up from his imaginary scenarios with Lenamare, and was too pissed off at this damn dragon, to do so. As easily as they had dug finger holds, his claws raked through the scales of the dragon, causing it to scream again.
This time the dragon's blood squirted on Tom, and if he had thought that the breath acid had stung, well this was somehow worse yet. The dragon reached down and tried to bite Tom on the head. Viciously, incisors bit into Tom's shoulder, one canine type fang punctured Tom's chest. He gasped in new pain, as lancing bolts of agony shot up from the puncture wound. Because of the puncture, he couldn't really use his left hand, not only did the tooth in his chest interfere with his pectoral muscles, but his left arm was partially in the mouth. Everything went dark around him as the jaws clamped shut. The small incisors hurt, but he hardly noticed them compared the fang in his left chest muscle, and the complementary top fang scraping along his left side. The dragon's tongue kept poking Tom on the head as it tried to bring him into its mouth to chew him up.
In a desperate attempt to avoid being eaten, Tom wildly swung his right fist towards where his own face would be. He felt his fingers tearing into the softer underside of the dragon's jaw, ripping muscles and scales. The dragon shuddered and screamed with its mouth shut. With his head inside the mouth, Tom's ears rang horribly, painfully even. He pulled down with his right hand, desperately using all his strength. His hand hit jaw bone; he pulled, and pulled, at the same time trying to gouge his nails into the bone.
Suddenly he heard a cracking sound nearby, and felt less resistance against his right hand. Then the fang was out of his chest, the head rearing back in pain, as part of its jaw hung broken from its mouth. As the head reared back, Tom noticed what appeared to be a more vulnerable spot, down where the dragon's neck met it's body. It was about fifty feet away now that the dragon's neck had arched back and up.
Tom ran as fast as he could towards the front of the dragon, he used his wings to add to his speed. This had never worked in practice, he'd always fallen flat on his face, but then he'd never had wings before to help him, he prayed silently that this would work, otherwise he'd be a dragon snack. When he got to what he felt was the right distance away, he jumped, spinning in midair. He again tried to use his injured wings as best as possible to aid his flight. Almost before he could think again, his feet impacted on the spot, doing a double reverse spinning back kick. His sharp hooves plunged into the dragon's body, just
as they had into the ground after his fall from the pillar. Up to his thighs Tom plowed. The dragon screamed, if possible, even louder than before. Quickly before he could be plucked out, Tom began to kick his legs, back and forth inside the dragon, praying that he would disrupt something vital. Thrashing madly the dragon tried to remove Tom from its body. It screamed and shrieked, spun and thrashed. Tom grabbed onto scales to hold on, wincing as his left hand closed, and his arm flexed. Slower and slower the dragon spun, Tom kicked and kicked, all the time his legs screamed in agony as dragon blood ate away at his skin and muscle.
Finally, after a small eternity, the dragon's throws subsided; it ceased its screaming. The thrashes turned to mild rolls, then to rocking and finally it stopped. When convinced it was done, Tom crawled out of the dragon. His legs were shriveled and the muscles were partially dissolved almost down to the bone in places. All over his body scales were missing, dissolved away by the acid breath, and the even more acidic blood. On the left side of his chest was the gaping hole where the dragon tooth had speared him, green pus oozed from the wound. Apparently it was what passed for demon blood. He was still functional, so apparently no important organs were located in that part of his chest. Tom was exhausted; but, to be safe, he crawled over to the thinnest part of the dragon's neck. Clumsily, he plunged his fingers in, and began to hack and rip the dragon's head off. He wanted to make sure, before he slept, that this was one nightmare that was over.
Chapter 12
Jenn was in charge of leading some of the younger students in search of herbs and other plants needed for healing and magic spells. Alpert and Rodgier pulled two small wagons behind them and followed Jenn closely through the woods. Daphne and Siegfrid ran along beside Jenn, darting back and forth between trees looking for the plants she had described to them. Rupert walked calmly to her left, his eyes carefully scanning the ground around him.
Rupert, Jenn thought, was always so serious. It was perhaps a shame that he couldn't be as happy and playful as Daphne and Siegfrid, who were his own age. Children should be happy while they could, hard work and serious study came later. Jenn smiled fondly and remembered back when she was their age, if only she'd known to enjoy things more while she had the chance. Now it was work and study all the time. Goddess, she felt old for her seventeen years. Perhaps it was just tension from the expected siege.
Rex's rumors had been right. The very next morning after breakfast, Master Lenamare had called all the students and staff together to announce the fact that Exador had stated that he intended to take the school. Runners had been sent out to gather the peasants and recruit more men for defenses. The past few days had been the most hectic Jenn had yet seen at the school. Thiswas the first time in recent history that Jenn could think of a wizard's school being laid to siege by another group of wizards.
There had, of course, been, the Armelian invasion, over a hundred years ago, and the battle for Lord Folios' Keep, where thirty students, five masters, and three hundred men at arms had kept off the besieging army for thirteen weeks until help had arrived. That, however, had been during war time, and then the people laying the siege had been an invading army, not the neighboring wizards' guild. Why the Archimage of Turelane would permit such a thing, Jenn had no idea, but apparently, Exador had no fear of being opposed. To blatantly lay siege to a school such as Lenamare's took a lot of guts, or a lot of backing.
It was this fear of lots of backing that had really set people's nerves on edge around the school. After all, if it was just Exador, one could expect intervention from the Archimage and the Council, but apparently, Lenamare felt no intervention would be forthcoming, because he had talked of fighting to the last man, `to defend our freedom and our homes.' Needless to say, that had made a lot of people nervous. The only thing keeping people together was fear, and their belief in Lenamare and some new secret weapon of his.
Jenn, like all of the older students who had been present, knew that the secret weapon was the fourth order demon; however, all those present had been warned not to speak for fear Exador might learn, and attempt to gain more demonic support of his own. Actually, Jenn wasn't all too sure that what one fourth order demon could do to improve the efforts of seven or eight lessor demons against a huge army was worth the risk involved in controlling such a beast. She imagined, however, that the psychological effect of confronting a wizard powerful enough to control it, and the fear the demon itself would instill in the enemy soldiers would probably be worth it in and of themselves. Minor demons tended to scare normal people, more powerful ones even made trained wizards nervous.
Of course it wasn't shear power that made the higher order demons fearsome, it was also their trickiness. In addition to being more powerful, they also tended to be smarter and so could use their power to greater effect. It was these demons that wizards had to be especially careful of; the miswording of any order could be the undoing of the wizard’s entire cause. All too often one heard horror stories of some hapless wizard who overlooked a loophole in his or her command, only to find themselves spread out all over their tower in tiny pieces. Of course, Jenn had never known any of these wizards or even knew of anyone that actually had known one of these wizards, who was ripped to shreds. Still, it was a well-known fact that nobody cared to test. Enough proof could be garnered in the form of observation of the sometimes twistedly literal ways demons carried out their orders, and their general threatening manners.
To Jenn, as to all wizards, it was quite obvious that each and every one of these malevolent and foul beings would do anything they could to destroy mankind. As such, they were very much a two edged blade when used in combat. Jenn personally preferred to rely on human strength and other forms of magic, rather than face demons. Especially that new one. True, it was the first demon greater than second order that she had seen, but that had been more than enough. Its huge and hideous form gave her goose bumps just thinking about it. How Lenamare could plan on using something so monstrously powerful and unthinkably old and inhuman, she really couldn't understand. If Exador had the powerful backing everyone feared he had, then using a fourth order demon would probably escalate things and bring in more high order demons. If the Archimage of Turelane got involved, he too could send in a fourth order demon, perhaps even a fifth, if he really got desperate.
Jenn brought herself to a halt in the forest and began to scold herself for being so foolish in her speculation. A fifth order demon. As if Lenamare's school could ever be so valuable. No, perhaps the fourth order demon could save them. The goddess knew Jenn prayed that it would never come to even using that.
Off to her right Daphne screamed. Quickly, Jenn spun to her right. She motioned the other three children with her to huddle together as she ran to where Daphne sounded to be. She dodged through a few trees and came upon the frightened child. Siegfrid was cowering with her, both were trying to back away from what menaced them.
What menaced them Jenn quickly saw, was a man. Not just any man either, he was scroungy and dirty looking and wore the trappings of a forester. His cloak however had a bright badge of purple and gold. Exador's colors. This man, who was advancing on the children with a dagger, with the obvious intention of silencing them before they could give warning, was one of Exador's scouts.
Fearing for the children, Jenn reached in her pocket and pulled out a small vine. "Esticten tomros sed nesten. Verdet et suprestum entreppum sid faltos. Xiat et lux." As she said this she concentrated on the forest growth around the man's feet, she twisted the vine in her hands into a loop.
Mimicking her gestures, the roots of nearby trees and bushes, rose to twine around the man's feet. Cursing the man stumbled and fell to the ground. Looking up, he grimaced angrily as he saw Jenn. Hurrying, before he could get free, Jenn shoved the children back towards the wagon, and then grabbed more vines from her pocket. Carefully she repeated the spell, this time wrapping the struggling man's right arm and then his left. After this she roped him around the waist.
Reaching into anoth
er pocket she pulled out a rock and began the spell that would make her other spells last long enough to get people back here to capture this man. "Eternum solidum, vectos sed altos entreppum se kreolum. Sig fielos soy dernum. Kiapum der bindus." Using all her strength she broke the rock she held with her hands, releasing its centuries old hardness and solidness into her previous spell, so that it might have some of the lasting power that this rock had had. Since the rock was only limestone, because that was all she could break with her own hands, the spell wouldn't last that incredibly long, but it should last without her for several hours, long enough for her purposes.
She then left the man, still struggling and cursing and led the children back to the wagon. As a final precaution, she took out a small crystal and stared into it. Concentrating, she tried to detect any other humans in the area. As far as she could tell though, the scout had been alone, or certainly was now. It wasn't fool proof, and she wasn't the best at this sort of scrying, but it was still better than nothing
Feeling relatively safe now, she headed the children back to the tower. At least the children would have something to talk about. As would she, Jenn realized. What was more, Jenn suddenly thought, she, herself, had made an important contribution to their defense by stopping a spy, and by capturing someone who would have information on Exador. Shaking from the past few moments of stress, but proud of herself, Jenn returned home with her charges in tow.
Chapter 13
For the second time since smoking the grass, Tom awoke in the demon plane. Oh well, Tom thought, still here. Tom had hoped he might have woken up at home, proving that the whole thing had been a dream. It was still real though. What was happening at home? Tom wondered. Was he in a coma some place, or was he, as Boggy said, dead. He hoped he wasn't dead. He hated to think of all the pain it would cause his mother if he were dead. Hisdad had died in an explosion 10 years ago, and just recently his mom had divorced his stepfather, so Tom was pretty much the only person she had in her life.