The Sorcerer's Abyss (The Sorcerer's Path) (8 page)

“Feh’lan, it has been a long time. What brings you to the gate? Did you miss me?” Halphis asked.

“Hardly, but I will admit a certain happy coincidence,” Feh’lan replied. She pushed her chest out and swayed seductively, drawing the commander’s eyes to her breasts. Not that he needed such encouragement.

Halphis leaned to his left and gawked at the succubus’s missing wing. “Who has brutalized you? Tell me and I shall eat his guts!”

“You say the sweetest things, Halphis. Some revolting balrog, but as much as I would enjoy seeing you dine upon his entrails, I am afraid I have more pressing duties at the moment.”

Halphis grinned perversely. “I too have some matters of
pressing
to which I would like to attend.”

“Singularly thinking as always, I see. My sisters and I need to go through the gate.”

Halphis’s face turned serious. “Feh’lan, you know I cannot let just anyone through. Why must you pass?”

“Klaraxis has returned, as I am certain you are aware, and has sent me and my sisters on a sort of diplomatic mission to inform Drak’kar he is back.”

Abyssal law held that no demon could wage war on another while the lord of the circle was on the material plane. Such rare occurrences benefitted the abyssal realm as a whole to spread terror and gain sacrifices from those who would seek demonic aid.

“Hm, why would our Prince bother,” Halphis asked.

Feh’lan twitched her shoulders, the lack of weight on the left side furiously reminding her of her loss. “How should I know? I am given to understand things did not go well. Perhaps Klaraxis is hoping Drak’kar is looking for a fight. Nothing soothes a battered ego like beating your arch rival bloody.”

“Hardly. Drak’kar is ambitious, but he is not stupid enough to think he can challenge Klaraxis.” Halphis looked at the succubus shrewdly. “I suppose I would be remiss in my duties if I did not send a messenger to verify your claim.”

Feh’lan knew the kind of game the Gate Commander was playing. She had counted on it. “Aw, you know how impatient I am. I would not visit that dreadful Fourth Circle if I could avoid it. Surely there is some way I could convince you to let us through without having to wait upon some slow messenger?”

“Sometimes I think you can read my mind, temptress.” Halphis turned and led the succubus toward the interior of the monolithic structure.

Feh’lan returned almost an hour later, her mission an unabashed success. Such actions might make most creatures feel debased and filthy, but a succubus’s feminine wiles were their most potent weapon, and they had no qualms about using it to get what they wanted.

“Come, sisters, it is time,” Feh’lan informed her companions.

As the envoys approached the point between the two conical spires, runes flared all along their surface and a shimmering screen leapt between them like the wavy distortion created by the sun beating down upon the desert sand. The distortion quickly cleared and a new vista appeared in the space between the two structures. Although the land beyond was as equally barren, there was a change in the hue and shape of the landscape. The stone was more grey and the terrain more rugged.

Immediately on the other side of the gate, a company of Klaraxis’ demons stood at the ready. Beyond them, and just within visual range, stood the garrison of Fourth Circle demons who controlled another gate allowing access to their realm. The half mile of land stretching out between the two gates was simply called the neutral grounds.

The Fifth Circle demons paid Feh’lan and her sisters little heed as they stepped through and cautiously crossed the neutral ground. The demons guarding the gate at the far end went on alert as the succubi approached, formed into ranks, and prepared themselves for treachery. Feh’lan snorted at the ridiculousness of their posturing. She and her sisters numbered a dozen while the demons guarding the neutral ground numbered at least a hundred.

Feh’lan kept them all on the ground as they approached while Fourth Circle succubi and other flying demons circled and swooped overhead. She and her sisters were in enemy territory now, and they needed to avoid doing anything considered hostile. A jikin demon stepped slightly to the fore of the front rank and stopped the approaching interlopers. The jikin was similar in appearance to the kamaris but shorter and broader. His legs were so short, the knuckles of his long, thick arms nearly dragged the ground and his horns jutted back instead of forward.

“Stop, Fifth Circle scum, and explain why you intrude upon my post.”

Feh’lan dipped her head and stared at the demon’s feet in a show of proper supplication. “Gate Commander, Klaraxis has returned to rule over his realm. We are here to deliver that information to Drak’kar.”

“Consider it delivered and be gone from my sight.”

Feh’lan dipped a fraction further. “It is Klaraxis’ will that we pass on our message to your lord personally.”

The jikin, Belgor, narrowed his eyes at the succubus. “Why would you need to do such a thing, and why should I allow you anywhere near our Prince?”

“Truly I do not pretend to know the mind of our lord and master. Do you propose to know yours? I have information Drak’kar will almost certainly want to hear. I would not want to be the one who thought they knew better and kept the message from reaching him.”

Belgor appeared to think for several moments before deciding the risk to himself if he kept these creatures and their information from reaching Drak’kar was far greater than allowing the succubi through the gate. “I will provide you with an escort. Attempt to deviate from their instructions or provide them the slightest sign of hostility and they will tear you apart.”

“Of course, Gate Commander. I think Drak’kar will reward your wisdom when he hears what we have to say.”

Belgor whistled shrilly and made several complex gestures with his hand. A squadron of nearly a score of succubi and another demon type looking like a giant bat only slightly more humanoid, called a grackin, converged overhead. Ten harunden beasts, which looked like a mutated hybrid of a mastiff and an alligator, raced through the formed ranks of demons and circled the succubi, snarling, drooling, and pawing at the ground in barely suppressed aggression.

“You will stay on the ground,” Belgor told Feh’lan. “If you try to fly off, the harunden beasts will either tear you apart before you have the chance, or the flyers will bring you down and feed you to them. Do not stray, and obey all instructions, or you will not live to deliver your message, I promise you.”

Feh’lan fought to control the impulse to comment on the Gate Commander’s hospitality. Fortunately, wisdom won, if just barely. “Of course, Commander, we will be on our best behavior.”

Belgor scoffed, “It had best be better than that, or you’ll never make it.”

Feh’lan was forced to leave her sling behind, likely as an incentive to keep all of the succubi on the ground. As shrewd and self-serving as the succubi were, they possessed a fierce constancy to their own kind.  The pillars of the gate flared and the squad of flying demons and their hounds escorted the entourage through.

The landscape made another abrupt if subtle change as they stepped through the gate and into the realm of the Fourth Circle. The term circle is misleading and it has long confused most everyone except for the few scholars who have studied the abyssal realm. Most people imagine the abyss as a series of rings with the Goddess of Death in the center acting as the hub. In reality, the abyssal realm looked more like a stack of plates with the Dark Queen at the bottom. There was no physical connection between circles, and the only way to move between them was by using the gates or a shadow way. Shadow ways were essentially rifts in the dimension one could use to travel between circles, but they were a chaotic place, often shifting locations, and were host to some very unpleasant creatures.

Feh’lan and her sisters marched across the barren land, constantly surrounded by the harunden and watched from overhead by the Fourth Circle succubi and grackins. Walking was not only tedious; it was a serious blow to the pride of a succubus. Their kind considered such a mode of locomotion to be reserved for the lesser creatures. The group had traveled quite far, probably a mortal day or two, before one of the Fourth Circle succubi made a lazy spiral downward and fell into step with Feh’lan.

“I am surprised to meet a sister from the Fifth Circle. I am Kra’la,” the succubus said.

Feh’lan paused before answering, but she decided there was little or no harm in being cordial. “I am Feh’lan.”

“What would force you to risk an audience with Drak’kar? Does it have something to do with your wing?”

Feh’lan’s stump of a wing made an involuntary twitch at the reminder. “It is not unrelated.”

“I hope the one who damaged you has paid for its transgression,” Kra’la said, seemingly sincere.

Feh’lan smiled. “Not yet, but he will.”

“I hope Drak’kar finds whatever you have to tell him entertaining. It would not be unlike him to tear off your other wing simply for amusement should your words prove boring.”

“I am certain he will be very interested in what I offer. Tell me, Kra’la, is Drak’kar a creature of his word?”

Kra’la paused before speaking. “If the gain is worth his time, he will treat fairly. He is as quick to reward personal gain as he is to punish loss or failure. He will only betray someone if the gains of doing so outweigh keeping his word. So Klaraxis has returned. Did his foray into the mortal realm go well?”

“It did not,” Feh’lan responded darkly.

Kra’la continued to engage the Fifth Circle delegation in idle chatter, which made the passing time and miles almost bearable. The group eventually reached the Lord of the Fourth Circle’s monolithic, black pyramid. Although not quite as large as Klaraxis’ colossal fortress, its simple, six-sided shape made it seem even more imposing. The top was shorn off about three-quarters of the way up. From each of the six corners, black claw-like protuberances sprouted up like the prongs of a ring used to hold a giant gem in place. If the huge setting had ever held such a jewel, someone had stolen it. The only thing adorning the massive claws now were bolts of lightning arcing between them.

Feh’lan and her group’s escorts led them to the base of the ziggurat where a large opening flanked by massive columns stood under the watchful eyes of a mixed group of demons. Kra’la halted the procession a hundred yards from the entrance and flew to the alert guards. After a few minutes of conversation, the escort leader flew back and ordered them to proceed toward the entrance. Several demons, palace guards Feh’lan surmised, poured out from the entrance and took up the responsibility of leading the delegation inside. Only Kra’la and two of the harunden followed the party beyond the doors.