Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 156907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
“Daemon.”
Daemon?
“Daemon as in, demon?” he inquired.
The creature studied him in open befuddlement. “Maybe. Dee-mon was said much. Though I liked Day-mon.”
By Vicee.
He had been correct when he’d first seen this creature.
It was a demon.
Jellan tried to remember what he had read in the Go’Doan tomes of the creatures long ago known as demons who were banished by the gods.
What was known about them?
Why had they been created?
What was their power?
Why had they been banished?
And how did this one get loose when they were cast away by the very gods?
He did not remember. He knew there were a number of them. And he knew they had power, though not what it was, but they also wielded might.
It was a long time ago. Before recorded history.
But tales that remained had been recorded in the Dome City.
Jellan just did not study them acutely.
He needed to get to those tomes.
“Did you have brothers and sisters?” Jellan asked.
The gaze of the creature went vague as it drifted away, and it murmured, “I think. A long time ago. Though, they are lost to me.”
Banished deeper in the under-realm?
If so, how did this one rise?
“You know, Daemon, I have magic,” he told him.
Daemon looked to Jellan.
“If you like, I could try to get us to the surface,” he suggested.
“Do I please you?” Daemon inquired.
“I’m sorry, in what way?” Jellan asked.
The being indicated his face and body with a swoosh of his hand.
“You are very handsome,” Jellan muttered.
“Do I please you in other ways?” Daemon asked.
Jellan did not know how to answer that.
“You do not…emit like I do when you please me,” Daemon explained.
Jellan had tried to do this, but he found he could not with Marian watching.
“I do not like an audience,” he said quietly.
“Ah,” Daemon replied.
“And it would be good if you found some oil,” Jellan mumbled.
“Oil?”
“For ease, and um…friction.”
The Beast’s lips split in a beatific smile.
“We will try to rise, and when we do, we will find some,” Daemon decreed.
Yes!
“I will…gather my magicks. I will…conserve my strength,” Jellan promised.
“I will make sure you have more food, and in the meantime, I will tell her I want oil so I can have friction when I use you.”
Jellan nodded, trying not to do it enthusiastically, about the food, or cringingly, about the other.
“It will also be better for you,” he shared.
Daemon grinned at him. “It is already good.”
Jellan gave him a tentative return smile.
“And I will share I do not want her watching.”
“No,” Jellan said, too swiftly, for as he spoke, the creature’s brows drew together. “It might make her angry.”
“Why do I care if I make her angry?” Daemon asked. “I could crush her head against the stone.” It lifted its hands and clapped them together, making a loud noise that caused Jellan to jump. “But I cannot, for she is the only way I have to make me rise.” He shook his head. “When she took me up, I should not have let her bring me back down.”
“Well, you might have me.”
The creature brightened.
“However, we do need to keep her around. If I cannot access my magic down here, we may need her to get to the surface.”
“Oh,” Daemon mumbled. “Right.”
“I will…” He swallowed his excitement and carried on. “I will try to do what I will. More food will be good. Clothes.”
The thing grinned again. “I like you as you are. Though you are now too skinny.”
“I will need clothes on the surface.”
Daemon nodded. “I will have her females mend your robes.”
Excellent.
“Be careful, uh, showing your mistress any concern for me.”
“It will be difficult for you to be of use to me if you waste to nothing or catch a chill that also,” it grinned again, “wastes you to nothing.”
“Yes,” Jellan agreed. “And if I find my magicks are bound down here, like yours, I will find a way to tell you, and then we will plan what we will do next in order to get you to the surface.”
Daemon nodded.
“But we will get you free,” Jellan whispered.
The Beast stared hard at him and replied, “I want to be free.”
“It is my calling to make you thus, and I will do it. That is my oath to you, Daemon. Believe in me and understand my resolve. That is my oath.”
The Beast continued to stare hard at him.
And he did not smile when he ordered, “Make me free.”
Jellan nodded.
The Beast came at him.
And, with no audience, Jellan made certain his oath was sealed with an offering.
The Beast approved.
103
The Counsellor
King True
Outside the Bedchamber of Sir Alfie, Birchlire Castle, Notting Thicket
WODELL
“Are you ready?” True asked Bronagh.
She did not look as such, entirely, but she nodded.
He turned and looked to Bram and Florian, Wallace and Luther.
“And you?”
They nodded as well.
He turned to his wife at his side
“Here goes,” he whispered.
Her eyes shining bright with hope and happiness, she leaned into him, coming up on her toes, and touched her mouth to his.