Rage of a Demon King (31 page)

“But in doing this, he also created other situations, ones you know nothing of. And as a result you must eventually pay the price for his meddling. And at the end of your life, that price will be terrible.”

Pug didn’t hesitate. “You leave me no choice. A terrible foe stands on the brink of destroying everything I love. I must live.”

“Then I will help you live. You will know things, and you must act.” She placed her hand upon his face, covering his eyes.

Suddenly Pug felt the void around him tear, and a great pain shot through his body.

He sat up, a dry scream ripping from his throat.

Nakor held him. “Drink this.”

A bitter brew of herbs touched his lips, and Pug drank deeply. He blinked and found his entire body throbbed with pain. Nakor said, “This will lessen your suffering.”

Pug focused his mind and the pain subsided. “I can deal with pain,” he said, and his voice was a stranger’s. “Help me to my feet.”

Sho Pi, Calis, Calin, and Aglaranna stood nearby as the magician got to legs shaky with weakness. A robe was brought, and Pug said, “I seem to be the worse for wear.”

“You will heal,” said Nakor. “A good healing priest can even rid you of the scars.” He touched the magician’s cheek. “Though it seems you’re managing well enough on your own. Someday we must talk about your abilities.”

Pug smiled and his face hurt. “Sometimes I think the same of you.”

Nakor also smiled. “We came to take a last look at you before saying farewell.”

“Good. Where were you going?”

Calis said, “Nakor and I are bound for Crydee. Anthony has one of the old Tsurani transport orbs, and we are going to use that to get to Krondor.”

Pug said, “Let me rest this day and tomorrow we’ll all three go straight to Krondor.”

He glanced around. “How long since I was injured?”

“Two months,” said Nakor.

“What’s the date?”

“Two days past Banapis,” said Calis.

“Then the Emerald Queen’s fleet . . .

“At the Straits of Darkness,” answered the Elf Queen’s younger son. “Anthony gave me a viewing lens made from air, and we watched.”

Pug said, “Miranda? Macros?” He glanced at the group. “Tomas?”

“When you were injured they went to look for
answers under the Ratn’gari Mountains,” said Calis. “Will you join them?”

Pug said, “I don’t think so. You and I need to go somewhere else.”

“Krondor?”

“First; then we must go to Sethanon.”

Calis said, “I have much to do before I set foot in Sethanon.”

“No,” said Pug. “You must go with me to Sethanon.”

“How do you know?” asked Calis.

Pug said, “I have no answer. I just know this to be true.” Looking at the Elf Queen, he bowed. “Lady, when your husband returns, please let him know that is where we will be.”

Aglaranna nodded. “First you must eat and rest. You’ve been kept alive by magic arts and your body is not strong.”

“A fact I am painfully aware of,” said Pug, as his eyes rolled up and he collapsed into Nakor’s arms.

Consciousness returned slowly, but at last Pug awoke, finding Sho Pi sitting watch with him. “How long?”

“Another day, a night, and most of this day.”

Pug sat up. His skin itched and his muscles protested, but he found that while still weak, he no longer felt unable to function. He rose unsteadily and looked around. He ran his hand over his chin and felt the stubble of beard returning. He had been moved to a small room, carved from within the bole of a huge oak, and found, stepping beyond a heavy curtain, that it opened into the private garden of the Queen and Tomas. Aglaranna sat with her two sons, in calm discussion.

Calin said, “Welcome.”

Pug sat down slowly, allowing Sho Pi to hold his elbow. “My thanks for all you’ve done,” said Pug.

“We only aid those who are fighting to preserve this,” said the Queen, motioning with her hand to indicate all of Elvandar.

“A bit more than that,” said Nakor, entering the glade. “The entire world.”

The Elf Queen said, “For the eledhel, Elvandar is the world.”

Nakor sat down next to Pug and regarded him. “You’ll live.”

“Thank you. I needed the reassurance,” said Pug dryly.

Nakor laughed. “When do we leave for Krondor?”

Pug glanced at the falling light. “It’s evening there already. We should leave first thing tomorrow.”

“Another night’s rest will help you,” said Sho Pi.

“Besides, Nakor,” said Pug, “you and I need to discuss some things.”

Calis said, “Such as?”

Pug said, “Some things, I am sorry to say, must remain between Nakor and me.”

Calis shrugged. “That’s as it should be. But I will be glad to return to Krondor. There is still a great deal left to do.”

Pug said, “You must go to Sethanon.”

Calis’s gaze narrowed. “I have duties.”

“Be that as it may, you must be in Sethanon.”

“My father?” asked Calis.

“He may have something to do with this, but I think it is something only you are capable of seeing done.”

“What is that?” asked the Queen.

Pug sighed. “I don’t know.”

Nakor laughed, a loud, long guffaw. “That sounds like something I would say.”

Pug shrugged. “I can’t say how I know, Calis, but you must be in Sethanon at the end. And you can’t risk not getting there. Which means we cannot have you in the battle. You must go straight to Sethanon—
now
.”

Calis looked torn. Pug and his father were nearly legendary figures, men whose wisdom and power were undoubted, but he had seen to the forging of the Prince’s defenses as much as William, James, or the others. “But there are so many things for me to do.”

“There are many men to do those things,” said Nakor, “but if Pug is right, there is only one man who must be at Sethanon when the battle ends.”

“Why?” asked Calis.

“We will know when the time comes,” said Nakor with his nearly ever-present grin. “All will be made known.”

Calis said, “What of the others—my father, Macros, and Miranda?”

Nakor shrugged. “They have their own concerns, I am sure.”

Macros said, “Whenever I think I’ve seen everything there is to see, something new and perplexing shows up.”

Miranda and Tomas were forced to agree as the demon shifted its weight uncomfortably upon the ground. They had been communicating with it constantly since it had spoken, and had revealed problems. The demon itself appeared to be nearly mindless,
but some other intelligence was in control. The problem was that this intelligence was limited in how much of the demon’s nature it could stem. Twice Macros and Miranda had been forced to restrain the creature and listen to it howl in rage for days.

But at the end of a month of give and take, all parties had arrived at a clear understanding.

The demon was controlled by a being named Hanam, a Saaur Loremaster from the Saaur home-world of Shila. Between the four of them—Macros, Hanam, Miranda, and Tomas—they had pieced together a picture of events.

A dark power, vaguely known to Macros and Miranda, but whose name was hidden from them, had influenced the priests of a city called Ahsart, manipulating them into opening an ancient barrier between the demon realm and this one. The demons had come into the world of Shila, destroying an ancient empire and everyone in it.

The Pantathians had shown up in providential fashion, offering the remaining Saaur refuge on Midkemia in exchange for a generation’s service, thirty Midkemian years.

For half that time the Saaur had been growing in power on the continent of Novindus, then aiding the Emerald Queen in conquering the entire continent in anticipation of this attack on the Kingdom.

Miranda sighed. “We have, it seems to me, two options.”

“Which are?” asked Tomas.

“Reveal the betrayal of the Saaur by the Pantathians, allowing them an honorable avenue to withdraw from the war, or find this entrance from the demon realm and close it.”

Tomas said, “We must do both.”

Macros said, “I do not like this choice, but Tomas is right.”

“Can we do one, then the other?” asked Miranda.

The voice of the demon still sounded like grinding rock, but Hanam said, “The demons’ King, Maarg, rages and has destroyed many of his own in frustration. He does not know the Pantathians have ceased to exist as a force.” Pointing with a clawed talon toward a distant tunnel, he said, “The rift between Shila and this world is but a half day’s walk from here. But on the other side of that rift wait Tugor and his minions.” The demon stretched his arms, now reaching nine feet from talon to talon, and said, “I am half his size, and I lack his demon’s cunning.”

Tomas said, “A demon lord I can best.”

“But it’s the numbers,” said Macros. “Save the Demon King himself, none of that realm is the match of any single one of us.” He glanced at his daughter. “Including you, I think, if you keep your wits.”

“Thank you for that,” she said dryly.

“But a dozen or more of them at once . . .” Macros shook his head. “That’s a different matter.”

Tomas said, “We delay, yet every day we spend here makes this a more difficult set of tasks.”

Macros said, “There are times when strength aids and times when stealth does.” He held up one finger. “Tomas, you are vital to the defense of Sethanon. I suggest you and Hanam attempt to divert the Saaur.”

Tomas said, “Can we get close enough to . . .” He glanced at Hanam for a name.

“Jatuk, son of Jarwa.”

“. . . Jatuk to let him know of the betrayal?”

“And will he believe a demon and a Valheru?”

Macros shrugged.

Hanam said, “If I can get him to listen, I know things only the Loremaster of the Saaur would know. If I can speak to Shadu, my student who took my place, I know I can convince him it is his old master who resides in this body.”

“What of you?” asked Tomas.

Macros said, “My daughter and I need to close the pathway between the demon realm and here. Eventually Maarg will deduce he has been betrayed by one of those he sent through, even if he doesn’t know which captain it is.”

“Once Maarg realizes he’s been betrayed,” said Hanam, “his rage will be without equal. He will launch a blind attack through the rift, ignoring however many of his servants die for the effort, but once he has reached this world, the outcome will be the same as it was on Shila. Eventually, you will all go to the feasting pits.”

Tomas said, “Do they suspect what is waiting at Sethanon?”

One of the longest debates that had gone on between Tomas and Macros had been over how much to tell the Saaur Loremaster. Eventually it had been necessary to tell him everything.

“No,” said Hanam. “Jakan knows only that he took over an army in the middle of a war of conquest and destruction. That is as much his nature as anything else. He eats one of his own every night to keep up his power, and his men think they still go to the arms of the Emerald Queen.

“I suspect his ambition is to devour this world and eventually return to challenge Maarg. But if he
should find this Lifestone he may attempt to seize it, thinking it a great prize. Who knows what may happen then?”

Macros sighed. “We are decided. Tomas, you must take our taloned friend here and convince his former student to listen.”

“There is one other thing,” said the Loremaster in demon form.

“What?”

“You must destroy me as soon as Jatuk is convinced. For this body and mind are a struggle to control, and I do not know how much longer I can maintain my dominance of them. It was long in gaining, but it may be over quickly.”

“Wonderful,” said Miranda, as she stood.

Macros said, “We will first find the rift into Shila, then we will cross over into that world and find the entrance in the city of Ahsart. And close that.”

“Unfortunately,” said Hanam, “there is one thing you’re overlooking.”

“What is that?”

“Maarg may already be on the world of Shila; if so, to close the entrance to the demon realm, you will first have to kill the Demon King.”

Macros looked at his daughter, and neither could think of anything to say.

Roo frowned.

Jason continued to run down their losses which had resulted from the huge burden of debt they assumed to lend gold to the Crown. “And now he wants more,” said Roo.

Jason said, “I don’t know how we can raise more gold to lend the Duke. We would have to sell off some of our more profitable concerns, and that would increase our problems with cash flow.” He shook his head. “Can you find someone else to lend the gold to the Duke?”

Roo laughed. “Well, perhaps I can convince Jacob Esterbrook to join me.” He knew it was futile. The few times he had dined with Jacob he had been carefully deflected from any discussion of Jacob’s aiding the Kingdom in the coming battle. Still, there were others, and Roo set about to see what he could do. “I’m going to be out for the rest of the day,” he
told Jason. “Would you send a message to my wife saying I may be in the city a few more days.”

Jason jotted down a note.

“Then see what Duncan is up to and have him meet me here at five of the clock. And I’d like Luis here, too.”

“Where will you be until then?”

Roo smiled. “Getting the Duke some money. I’ll be at Barret’s by three of the clock, and afterward I’ll return here. Until then I’m out and about.”

Roo took a cloak, a light one for fashion, as the day was hot, and wore a broad-brimmed hat with a stylish yellow plume and a very rich pair of riding boots. He carried his old sword at his belt.

He stepped into the busy streets of Krondor and turned to admire Avery and Son. He often paused to regard the huge warehouse he had converted to his business headquarters. He had purchased the land around the warehouse and had built office buildings attached to the warehouse, and now his wagons filled the great yard.

He turned and headed out to make his first call, on a banker who, while not a friend, at least owed him a favor.

“I need the gold,” said Duke James.

“I know, m’lord,” answered Roo, “but there’s no more gold to be had.”

“There’s always more,” said Duke James. Roo noticed he looked fatigued, with heavy circles under his eyes, as if he hadn’t been sleeping much lately. The tension in the city was mounting and rumors of war were circulating. The word of a great sea battle at Banapis off the Straits of Darkness had been carried
into the city the day before, and now ships were overdue from the Free Cities and Far Coast.

Roo said, “If you raise taxes, perhaps you can squeeze a bit more from the tradesmen and farmers, but the business community is very nervous now. Much of the gold you’re talking about has been bleeding to the East for the last few months.”

“No small part of it yours!” said the Duke, slamming his hand on the table.

Roo’s eyes widened. “I’ve done nothing any man in my situation wouldn’t have done, m’lord!” Roo’s words were hot and for an instant he almost forgot who he was talking to, but he held his anger in check, if barely. “I have given you every copper piece it is prudent for me to give. If I give you more, you’ll kill the cow for the milk.”

James looked at the small man. “Then we kill the cow. I need another month’s worth of stores and arms, and I need them yesterday.”

Roo sighed. “I’m going to dine with Jacob Esterbrook tonight, and I’ll see what I can squeeze out of him.”

James looked at Roo for a long, silent minute. “He’ll better you at this point.”

“How do you mean?”

“He’ll know you need to raise gold quickly, and he’ll want something you don’t want to sell him.”

Roo considered that for a moment. “If this army isn’t defeated, nothing I have will be of importance. If I have to take a loss now, what does it matter?” He stood up. “If I have your leave, I need to be back at Barret’s by three of the clock, and I still have two other stops to make. I must set a few things up.”

As Roo bowed and turned to the door, James said, “Rupert?”

“What, m’lord?” asked the little man, turning to regard the Duke.

“Have you many holdings in Landreth and Shamata?”

“Both, Your Grace.”

James measured his words. “You might do well to move whatever you have of worth to the north side of the Sea of Dreams.”

“Why, my lord?”

“Just a thought,” said the Duke, returning his attention to the papers he had been reviewing when Roo had arrived.

Roo let himself out. In the outer office of James’s secretary hung a large wall map of the Western Realm. Roo glanced at it, at the area around the Sea of Dreams. The Vale of Dreams had been in Kingdom hands for almost a hundred years, but had long been an area of dispute between the Kingdom and Great Kesh. Roo touched the map, at Land’s End. There was the westernmost Kingdom outpost on the shore of the Bitter Sea. To the northeast of it lay a small inlet, called Shandon Bay. A small town, Dacadia, was the only population of size between Land’s End and the Sea of Dreams. He traced his finger along a line of hills that moved eastward from the coast, south of Land’s End, to a point where it met the river that linked the Bitter Sea and the Sea of Dreams. Then Roo looked at the surrounding countryside, from the Great Star Lake and Stardock, back up the river to the Sea of Dreams. To the east of the Great Star Lake, the mountains called the Grey Range rose up. Suddenly Roo’s eyes opened.
“He wouldn’t!”

James’s personal secretary said, “What, sir?”

Roo laughed. “Never mind.”

As he left the office of the Duke of Krondor, Roo said, “By damn, I bet he did!”

With what was close to a dance step, Roo hurried down the stairs leading from the palace to the courtyard where a lackey was holding his horse. He took the reins, and as he turned his mount to the gate of the palace, he glanced around at the very busy marshalling yard and wondered where Erik was. He hadn’t seen him since Banapis, and he was starting to worry about his friend.

Then his mood darkened as he considered that it was only a few more weeks before this city was in the grip of war. Putting heels to his mount, Roo moved toward the gate and threw a lazy salute to the lieutenant who commanded there. The young soldier returned it, for Roo Avery was a common sight at the palace and was known to be a friend of the Duke. Which, along with his vast wealth, made him one of Krondor’s most important men.

Jacob Esterbrook said, “Have you given any thought to my offer?”

Roo smiled. “Considerable.” He decided the best tack to take with his business rival was to tell him what he already knew, as if being frank. “I have lent considerable gold to the crown, for this coming war, and as a result I find myself somewhat cash-poor.”

Sylvia smiled at Roo, as if everything he said was of vital importance. He returned her smile. “I’m not in a position to negotiate on behalf of the Bitter Sea Company without consulting my partners, but I think whatever I might agree to here would be agreeable to
them after I explain the way things are.” He paused to finish his last bite of dinner and dabbed at the corner of his mouth. “But I can certainly divest myself of any assets of Avery and Son, and there are several that might serve you as well as those we’ve discussed.”

Jacob smiled. “You have a counteroffer?”

“In a word, yes,” Roo said. “Since you seem to have a stranglehold on trade to Kesh, I’m considering abandoning my wagon yards in Shamata and my boat facility in Port Shamata. Both are fine facilities, but neither has realized me a coin of profit since I took them over, as you probably know.” He said the last with a rueful laugh.

“Well, I do keep abreast of business to the south. I have enjoyed a long and profitable relationship with several prominent Keshian business concerns.” Jacob pushed his chair back from the table as a servant hurried over to help him up. “My knees are not doing well. This weather, I think. When the sky is clear and things are hot and dry, they’re almost as painful as when there’s rain coming.”

Roo nodded as he stood. “Would you be interested in those facilities?” he asked.

“I’m always interested, Rupert, in increasing my holdings. It is merely a matter of price.”

Roo smiled. “As it should be.”

Jacob said, “Let us retire to the garden for brandy and then I’ll leave you to my daughter after that; I can’t keep the late hours I used to.”

They moved outside, under a warm and star-filled night. The garden was fragrant with the blooms of summer, and the night birds and crickets sang.

Roo sniffed his brandy. He was beginning to develop a taste for the distilled wine, but he still couldn’t tell
one from Kesh from one that was produced in Darkmoor, though he could tell quality like this one from the poor swill Lord Vasarius served. This one was pungent, tasted as much of wood as any he had tried so far, and gave him a pleasantly warm feeling inside, and the subtle taste of grape and wood lingered in his mouth for long minutes after he swallowed.

Sylvia sat next to Roo, absently letting her hand rest upon his leg, while her father said, “Why don’t you prepare a list of particulars and send it over tomorrow?”

“I will do that,” said Roo. “And as far as the properties here in Krondor you’ve inquired after, there are a few that I might be willing to part with, for the same reason I’m looking to get rid of those in Shamata.”

“What about Landreth?”

Roo shrugged. “Well, I do manage a little trading from the north shore of the Sea of Dreams to Krondor, so they show a better profit. That, too, would depend on price.”

They talked for an hour about business, and then Jacob rose and said, “I must to bed. If you’d like, stay and have another brandy. Sylvia will entertain you until you leave. Good night, Rupert.”

The old man left the garden, and after they were alone, Sylvia ran her hand up Roo’s leg. “Shall I entertain you?” she asked playfully.

Roo put down his brandy glass and kissed her. After a moment, he said, “Let’s go upstairs.”

“No,” she said, “I want to stay here.”

“In the garden?” he asked.

“Why not?” she said, unfastening her bodice. “It’s warm and I don’t want to wait.”

They made love under the stars, and when they were done, Sylvia lay upon the grass beside Roo, her head on his chest.

“You’ve not been coming around enough, Roo.”

Roo was jolted out of his pleasant half-dream state and said, “Things are getting frantic.”

“I hear there is war coming,” said Sylvia. “A lot of people are saying that.”

“Is it true?”

Roo considered what he should say next. At last he said, “It’s true, I think, though I don’t know if it’s any time soon. But you should consider going East if you hear of trouble in Krondor.”

“Krondor?” she said, playfully nipping his shoulder. “I thought Kesh was moving again.”

“It is,” said Roo, trying to tell her the truth; he loved her and wanted her safe, but he didn’t entirely trust her because of her loyalty to her father. “But this time I don’t think they’re going to move in the Vale.” He considered what that would do to his negotiations with Jacob. He decided it wouldn’t hurt, so he decided to embellish.

“You know Lord Vykor was called from Rillanon to Krondor.”

“Who’s he?” said Sylvia.

Roo wondered if she really didn’t know or just wanted to make him feel important. He ran his hand down her naked hip and decided it didn’t matter. “He’s the King’s Admiral of the Eastern Fleet. He’s lurking down in the Bay of Salts, with a huge flotilla, so that when Kesh sails out of Durbin, he can ambush it. Prince Nicholas took a large squadron to the west, out beyond the Straits, and will sail in behind the Keshians.”

Sylvia started playing with the hair on Roo’s chest. “I heard he was going out to meet a treasure fleet.”

Roo then realized she knew a great deal more than she had ever revealed. Finding his ardor dying, he said, “I must go home, I’m sorry to say.”

“Oh.” She pouted.

“Sorry, but there is the matter of gathering the documents your father wants.”

He dressed while she lay nude upon the grass, looking beautiful in the light of the large moon. When he was finished, she stood and kissed him. “Well, if you must run off, you must. Will I see you tomorrow?”

Roo said, “Impossible, but perhaps the night after.”

“Well, I’m going to bed and I’ll think of you as I lie in my sheets,” she said, running her hand down his stomach.

“You’re making this difficult,” he groaned.

She laughed. “Well, you make my life difficult. How can I think of another man when I have you in my life?” She kissed him and said, “My father wants to know why I don’t marry. He wants grandchildren.”

Roo said, “I know. It’s impossible.”

She said, “Perhaps the gods will be kind and someday we’ll be together.”

Roo said, “I must go.”

He left and she gathered up her gown. Rather than dressing, she carried her clothing through the house, and when she reached her room, she dumped it on the floor.

A soft moan from her bed caused her to smile and she crossed over in the dark, to find two figures
entwined on the covers. She slapped the maid hard across her bare buttocks and the girl yelped in surprise.

Duncan Avery looked up at Sylvia in the pale light coming through the window and smiled. “Hello, my darling,” he said with a rakish smile. “We got bored waiting for you.”

Sylvia pushed the maid to one side and told her, “Pick up my clothes and take them to the laundry.”

The girl regarded her mistress with an expressionless mask and slid out of bed. She picked up her own clothes and her mistress’s and hurried out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Sylvia reached down and stroked Duncan, saying, “Well, at least she got you ready.”

“I’m always ready,” he said, kissing her on the neck.

She pushed him back and straddled him, saying, “I need you to do me a service.”

“Anything,” he said as they gazed into each other’s eyes.

“I know,” she cooed as she leaned over and kissed him.

“You smell like grass,” he observed.

“No doubt,” she said. “I was entertaining your cousin on the lawn.”

Duncan laughed. “It would kill him to know you’ve gone from his arms to mine. He takes this sort of business far too seriously.”