Page 15 (2/2)

Amid the luxury confines of his suite, Terrin sat on the floor rooting around in his backpack,crudities that wouldused to it and having other things to think about: such as nervously wondering what Hell would be like

His reply, when I put the question to him, was less than satisfactory:

"About what you&039;d expect"

"But I don&039;t have any expectations"

"Prolly better that way"

"What do you mean?"

Then he told me in no uncertain terms to chill out so he could work Since , I shut my mouth, paced aiht up other questions And made myself not ask the upto nowhere in their little wheels had nothing oncrystal ball?" Terrin snarled "You can&039;t go until I find it"

I perked my ears "Oh, yeah?" I couldn&039;t keep sudden cheeriness from my tone "Why not?"

"I need it to watch you while you&039;re there"

"Use Fili ht sleaze its way through"

"You can handle a demon"

"Yeah, but I don&039;t need distractions that could break your astral thread If that got snapped you&039;d be stuck"

"I&039;ll help you look"

"Never usted

"At the inn?"

"Naw, a circle of standing stones a couple worlds back I was using it to scope out ley lines, see if they could lead me to an astral ly"

"You never told ic stuff bores you"

"What deity, what&039;d it look like?"

"Never got the na on her turf, doubly pissed that I wasn&039;t a virgin We got into a slugging irl?" I didn&039;t care for that

"A deity ould have er look like Woody Allen with pneu, yeah But she hit first It all happened while I was in a trance, so there was nothing going on you&039;d have noticed When I woke out of it ot all that?"

"Pretty much Happens all the time Go see if her ladyness has a spare Real crystal I don&039;t want one of those glass rip-off jobs I need a black candle, too"

"I still have that one in et it Meet you in the blue roo to do, I went downstairs, arriving in ti reception foyer The place was dark The only lights burning in the house were still in the kitchen and a couple candles Terrin had taken with hi once my pupils were fully dilated

Shankey walked in, just putting his sword in its scabbard He fumbled at a table with a tinderbox, and I considered introducing the concept of strike matches to this world They&039;d put up a statue topretty fast though, which brought out the colors forso one of those overdone soap opera heroes: all shoulders, ly curvaceous babe where every part was apart, the whole of it beautifully synchronized Wow What a looker She was sort of like Filima, but in vanilla instead of cinnamon I loved the choice of flavors on this world

The three of the at once I skimmed bits and pieces off the top Shankey had apparently found the the why behind their lurking and were pretty wound up about some major trouble that was on its way

Filima walked in from another quarter and called out to the babe "Velma! What&039;s the uy said "Lady Filiave him a quick nod and passed him by He see with six kinds of news, but rattling too fast for me to make much sense of it Fili that Botello has taken over Anton?" she asked "But Botello&039;s dead"

"Just bodily displaced," said the guy helpfully "He&039;s been in Hell these past teeks and when the chance came for him to possess someone he took it Now he&039;s out and about on this side of Reality"

"Botello&039;s here?" She went green Knohat I no about how her e ended, I couldn&039;t bla Anton&039;s body Everyone thinks he&039;s Anton," Velma clarified

Fili over, just a touch off balance Soap-guy h, and swept her up in his ar?" she demanded "Put me down"

He did so, but on a comfy settee "I&039;m sorry It&039;s allBotello, honey," said Vel hirasp He fell away a few steps and hung his head low If the word contrite hadn&039;t already been invented he&039;d have inspired it just then

"But he&039;s trying to et Anton out of Hell and heard you have a wizard roo at yours truly

"Hah?" I said "Not that again So them up to speed?"

"He&039;s the one Botello wanted

"You&039;ve talked to Botello?" Fili mirror Always in a nasty humor Told reat power"

I repeated the "hah?" and went the rest of the way down to join theood

Velot the kind oflook I love to see on women She came closer and touched ly "Oh! He&039;s real! Lord Perdle was going on to everyone that it was a mask"

"Just lil ol&039; me, lady" I wondered how she was at belly rubs She looked like al, beautiful, friendly, and extremely fond of cats

"You&039;re so soooffft" she cooed

Well, parts ofthe like a fine-tuned Mercedes

"Velma," said Filima "This is Myhr, but he&039;s not a wizard His friend Terrin is, and he&039;s upstairs"

"Does he look like you?" Velma wanted to know

"Not a bit I&039;m much more handsome"

"Then you&039;re his familiar?"

My whiskers drooped a bit Not the first tiether"

"He isn&039;t a wizard?" said Cad then, wasn&039;t he?" Fili venoaze "He had ical experiments, but I swear I didn&039;t know he&039;d be up to this sort of harm, the Hell-river, that is"

Velma reluctantly tore herself away frouy He&039;s on our side for this"

"When you hear e&039;ve been through"

Then they were all talking again except for Shankey I went over to stand next to hiot pretty intense for awhile until they sorted the help to do a seance so the dispossessed Overduke Anton could hiet him out of Hell Sounded kind of nuts to me, but maybe it would save ladly hold hands around a table and wait for so their toe joints

"We&039;ve notto find ates at any minute He won&039;t be stopped by clan protocols"

Then we all gave a big jued on the front doors

Shankey drew his sword, went to a side , and peeked through He relaxed a bit and unlocked things Debreban, breathless, sweating, and a bit singed, staggered in and spotted Cadmus

"My lord, he&039;s on his way here!" he announced

No one asked who "he" was "How long have we got?" Cadmus asked

"I last saw him in the bell tower area I took his horse and escaped, but he&039;ll likely find another He&039;ll be here soon!"

"How did you get past the gate guards?" Shankey wanted to know as he re-locked the doors

"I didn&039;t" Debreban abruptly grinned "Stood on the horse&039;s back and hoisted over the wall No one saw me"

"They&039;ll spot that horse if they haven&039;t already Did it have the ducal colors on the saddle or tack?"

Debreban spread his hands "I was too busy trying to get out of the way Lord Botello threw flames at me Twice!"

Cadmus stepped in "What? Flames? How?"

"I don&039;t know, ic"

"Of course it was, but he shouldn&039;t be able to do that The spontaneous generation of fire, ical power required is uni chunk of it stored away" This conclusion came from Terrin

We all looked toward the shadow-bathed stairs Nearly invisible in the dark, he was seated partway down, hands clasped loose between his knees, and had apparently been listening in for some time

"That&039;s Terrin," I said to the newcomers "He&039;s the wizard" And you&039;re welcoood look Not what they expected

"What do you ic?"

"If this is the sas around - "

"It is, and I e There are ladies present"

Terrin looked down his nose at hi He began to draw his sword

Filima put a quick, fir I&039;ve not heard before and thought myself Let him talk"

He looked surprised that she&039;d spoken to hilad to avoid a fight with Terrin, ht for his whole life Oh, yeah, he had it bad for her, terminally baaad Cadmus reluctantly subsided with a nod, but there was still tension in his frame He&039;d want to bust holes in walls That or kiss her

Terrin cleared his throat to get everyone&039;s attention "If it&039;s Botello, and if he&039;s on this side of Reality tossing e in plan to o to Hell?"

"I didn&039;t say that"

"What, then?"

"We just make sure he does ant Fili"

"And just what is it ant?" she pro everyone killed If he&039;s throwing fire around it ht be a little tricky"

"He&039;s after me," said Cadmus "Except for Debreban, I&039;m the only other person he knows is aware of his possession of Lord Anton"

"And me," put in Velma

"He can&039;t know you&039;ve found out about him"

"Assume the worst, that he has Go on"

"Well, if we make it look like I&039;ve not yet reached Darmo House he won&039;t have any reason to come here I&039;ll leave and see to it he&039;s led elsewhere"

Debreban shook his head "My lord, protecting the Burkus clan is my duty We need to hide you and the lady here while I lead him away Lend me your clothes and sword and - "

"Blast you, you will not I&039;ot between the: Botello is not an idiot He&039;ll search this place no matter how ardlessbecause ofall"He&039;s a pissed-off jerk who can throw fire and who knohat else Do you really want to get in the middle of a domestic disturbance with him? I don&039;t think so Filima, lemme ask you this: Botello&039;s in Anton&039;s bod, only you pretend you don&039;t know it He&039;s gonna knock on your gate in the ht What would you normally do?"

"Let him in of course He&039;s the overduke, after all"

"That&039;s right Once in, what do you think he will do when he sees you? Especially if he thinks he&039;s got you off-guard?"

Her eyes narrowed, her lips thinning to a smile "I understand"

Cado anywhere near hiain," she said "You don&039;t knohat&039;s at stake"

"Lady" Debreban spoke up "Begging pardon, but froht mind He won&039;t react the way he used to"

"Then I&039;ll just have to be careful I know he&039;s changed, and certainly for the worst, he&039;s been in Hell for teeks for gawd&039;s sake"

I sincerely hoped she wouldn&039;t say "poor Botello" again "Couldn&039;t we just hide behind the door, lure him in, then knock hi when someone would coht He was just getting us do his thinking for hiuards he&039;ll have along"

"Debreban and I can see to them," said Shankey

"But it&039;s treason to raise a weapon to the ducal guard," said Fili as we have kegs of beer handy and a store of sleepers in the apothecaria"

I took that to mean they stocked some kind of Mickey Finns in the house "Aren&039;t there rules against drinking on duty?"

He shot ht there will be"