Chapter 23

CONFRONTATION


The sensation was much different. It happened much more quickly and with much less discomfort. In only a second, a familiar glade came into focus. Dylan found that comparatively, the plane shifting spell was much more convenient, faster and comfortable than the natural conduit. Its only disadvantage was that it could be traced and sensed too easily.

Algol had been snoozing in the shade near Nikki's cabin. When they materialized, he lifted his head and sniffed the air, then he calmly stood and padded over to where they were gathered. He went straight to Crystal who greeted him fondly.

Dylan and Cindy were wrapped in each other's arms and seemed reluctant to separate. It was not until Nikki, herself approached, barely as tall as Dylan, himself, and urged everyone to wash up for supper. She said it with such calm, that it was as if they had been there all along and had not just returned from a mission to the lowest of the Nine Hells.

Gage urged Dylan to follow Crystal, Rathe and Coran to clean up and change clothes. "I must contact father and tell them that we are back," he said.

Dylan and Cindy, hand in hand, went to where fresh clothing had been hung out on a string to dry in the wind. They selected some that would fit them. Then Cindy went with Crystal into the small shack to clean up while the men did so out by a flowing stream that flowed behind the shack.

Gage closed his eyes and cleared his mind. He used the same spell he had used before to contact one of his uncles. He could have contacted his father, but the magic to do that was a more draining spell and he was already drained from what they had just gone through.

He bent over the fountains and cast his spell. The reflection in the water wavered then changed to show Ultrecht with Avery off in the distance behind him. Avery stood hundreds of feet tall and was swinging the massive sword and cutting through whole armies of devils like a scythe through grass.

"Gage?" Ultrecht asked. He did not seem hurt, but there was a sensation of fatigue in his voice. "Are you back?"

"We are, uncle. We got it all, the girl and the staff. We are back at mother's place. Please hurry, I think we will be followed. We only barely got away. As soon as they know where we went they will..." Gage's sentence was cut off by a flash of light and the young elf mage was thrown across the compound. The spell broke and the vision faded.

Gage lay against the cabin wall. He knew that he had at least one broken arm and possibly more damage. He could see three creatures emerging from warped air next to the fountain. Two were the Arch Devils Geryon and Asmodeus. He had seen drawings of them before and knew their descriptions from the lore he had read before at the Academy. The third figure was waiting behind the still expanding gateway. What ever it was, it was big.

"It appears we are not expected," Asmodeus said with a silky voice. He was handsome. His hair was dark and well groomed. He possessed horns, but they were very small and black and blended in with his hair. His skin was pale and his body was that of a healthy man. Only his red eyes and his height gave him away as being something other than what he was. He must have stood over a dozen feet tall.

The other devil was definitely inhuman. His head was human and his torso was that of a gorilla with bat wings, but from the waist down he appeared serpent-like and about thirty feet long. He held forth a hand and a scroll appeared in it with a puff of smoke. The arch devil then read the scroll aloud. Instantly, at least a hundred lesser devils appeared.

Gage sat stunned. He was vaguely aware that Rathe and Coran had joined him. "I must admit that the ploy was very good," Asmodeus offered as he approached the downed mage. "Your friends had me completely distracted." He laughed and the sound had a calming effect on Gage. The mage shook it off. He knew Asmodeus had the ability to charm and beguile even him if he was not on guard. He feared that his brother and the others would not be able to resist.

"I should have been more suspicious when they were beaten back so easily. He turned his full gaze on Gage. The mage felt his heart go cold and knew that he could not withstand the spell for long.

"Now, mage," the arch devil addressed him. "Where is the staff? It is my property. You may keep the girl child, but the staff I want back."

"That you will not have," a familiar voice said from the fountain.

The gate that had delivered Asmodeus and Geryon was still there, but it shimmered in a silvery light and had ceased to grow. The monster trying to get through was blocked.
Armegon stood next to the gate. He flowed like a living flame into incandescence. Slowly walking towards them was Ultrecht. His face was grim and his hands were clenched.
Without a sound, Avery appeared beside Gage and Rathe. The healer touched his son gently and immediately Gage felt his body mended and his strength return.

"Ah, Ultrecht," Asmodeus crooned. He took two steps forward and bowed with a hand extended in greeting. "How good it is to see you again."

"What?" Ultrecht asked, "no high speech? Have you finally gotten rid of all the 'thee's and 'thou's?"

"You are not a god or noble. Let's dispense with the formalities and get down to business. As I recall that's the way you like to do things."

"Fine," Ultrecht agreed. "Let's begin by stating what we both know." He let his arm sweep around the compound at all the devils that were awaiting orders from their lords. "We both know that a fight here and now would kill most of everyone in sight with the exception of you, Geryon and we three."

Ultrecht gestured at Gage and Rathe and Coran. "You know that the death of our children and friends is unacceptable to us, and you also know that if you did kill them, we would tear Nessus apart stone by stone until we found you and then Avery would put The Godslayer through your neck and give you a permanent haircut." For emphasis, Avery drew Liberator. The proximity of such evil made it very difficult for the ranger to control the weapon. "You know who forged that sword and that its power supersedes even yours." Ultrecht took the offered hand and shook it. "Instead of that kind of nasty business, what do you say we make a deal?"

"You want to deal with this?"! Armegon asked incredulously. He was fit to be tied and filled with rage. "I say we start with Avernus and that multi headed freak pet of his."

Asmodeus glanced back at the gate. "Yes, she will be most displeased that she is unable to join us. But that is beside the point. Ultrecht is right. You do not wish your friends to die and I do not wish to die either. Perhaps some sort of agreement can be made. Come, let us discuss it."

Asmodeus and Ultrecht walked away for a bit. Armegon, seething in fury was joined by Avery, who made great efforts to calm the sorcerer down.

"I knew that Ultrecht was acquainted with Asmodeus, but I didn't know they were friends," Avery commented.

"I didn't know they had ever met," Armegon growled. "Consorting with devils? What else has he been up to?"

"Calm down. If you think about it, his philosophy is much closer to theirs than you can imagine. You know how he likes bureaucracy."

"But these are the Dukes of Hell!"

"They aren't the same Dukes of Hell we fought those many years ago. They are different. Give them a chance."

"You like them?"

"No. I can respect their belief in law and order, but their disdain for life and freedom makes me ill. I would just as soon destroy them, but look at what such a fight would cost us." Avery indicated where Gage, Crystal, Dylan and the other stood. "Not to mention that they would be able to flood the southlands with their kind because of those idiotic Chira."

Armegon had calmed to the point he was no longer glowing. He still fumed and his face was flushed red, but he had to admit that what Avery had told him was true. He did not want to see Coran and Gage harmed, or any of the others for that matter.

After a few more moments, Asmodeus and Ultrecht concluded their discussions and returned. "A bargain has been made," Asmodeus announced. "We will withdraw," he told his allies. He nodded at Ultrecht who removed the barrier to the gate. The devils began to march through the gate led by Geryon.

Asmodeus remained behind briefly. "You will keep your word," he questioned.

"I will," Ultrecht answered. "And so will you."

Asmodeus bowed. "Then I wish you a good journey and goodbye." Then he turned and passed though the gate. The warp dissipated immediately.

"So what happened," Armegon demanded. "Did you just make a deal with the devil?"

"Yes," Ultrecht explained. "The staff is ours to keep and Asmodeus will not make another attack on the realm of men for one thousand years." He turned to Gage and Coran. "You have that long to figure out how to destroy the staff. By the terms of our agreement, we are forbidden to tell you how."

"In a thousand years, we can be ready for their attack," Armegon was confident.

"Perhaps, but we won't be here," Ultrecht answered.

"What do you mean," Avery interrupted.

"Part of the deal is that we three have to leave this world. The devils want a fair chance to conquer the mortal realm. They can't get that as long as we are defending it."

"Who says that they should get a fair chance at all?" Avery argued.

"It's either this way or they launch an all out attack against us now from all of the Nine Hells at once. They will, no doubt, try to recover the staff, and even we three can't safeguard the lives of those we love against that much force unless we are reunited by the Tome of Creation, and we already decided that we couldn't do that."

"And how do you propose we leave this world? The Well of Time?"

"No. After our victory at Gly-ou-vogue, The Creator gave each of us a gift. Mine was the knowledge of how to travel to different worlds."

"So do you think you can take us home again?" Armegon asked, his anger all but gone.

"I think so. I'm curious to see how much interest my accounts have earned."

"How can you think of money at a time like this," Avery scolded. "You want us to leave our families and friends defenseless against the Dukes of Hell."

"No, I want to buy them a thousand years to destroy that staff."

"I bet you didn't tell that to the devil," Armegon scoffed.

"Of course not. I only said that WE would not try to destroy it."

"The devils are immortal and a thousand years to them would be nothing. I think I can see why they took the deal," Avery posed.

"Assuming, of course, that they keep their word," Armegon countered.

"Oh they'll keep it," Ultrecht answered. "I made it plain that we would leave Gage and Coran the means to summon us back, should they not keep it, and our first action on returning would be to destroy the staff."

Ultrecht stared pointedly at Avery. "I'm sorry. I know that this is going to hurt you more than any other. But it was the only way out of the mess."

Avery nodded. His eyes found the eyes of his mate. She had been standing nearby listening and her hands had gone to her mouth as tears welled up. She knew what was about to happen. To save the lives of her and her children, her heart had to break.

"Come," Avery urged everyone. "Let's go inside. We'll cook and talk more. But for the moment I want to go home. This home."

Inside the cabin, Nikki served up the stew and bread. Then when her guests were all eating happily, she took Avery by the hand and led him outside.

Ultrecht was explaining to Armegon and Gage how the alignments of planets could be used to create warps that passed not only between planes, but between universes. "There is a random factor involved," Ultrecht concluded, "But the odds are we will get where we want to go."

Dylan and Cindy and Crystal sat with Coran and Rathe. The staff lay on the table and Coran caressed its surface in wonder. He could feel the power of the thing and he knew that it was within his ability to take the staff up and command an army of the dead. But the very nature of the staff was evil and the thought of doing something like that sickened him. He knew that the staff had to be destroyed. Yet there was something alluring about it; something that had to do with his blood and that of the older man who had been a prisoner in the Tower of Solitude.

Coran had asked his parents before if he was adopted, and they assured him that he was Gage's twin brother, even though they did not even closely resemble each other. His father had told him that there was an unusual event that happened during his mother's pregnancy and that it had to do with the Renegade House Blackheart, but that was long past and they were all thought to be dead.

Now Coran suspected that it was not true and that he, himself was the last of that line. If that was true, then he was of noble blood and that meant he had responsibilities to that blood. A whole new world of possibilities and opportunities were unfolding before him. The final words of the older man played on his thoughts and he was resolved to right the past wrongs, and if he was of noble blood, he would find his kingdom and rule with compassion and justice.

It seemed as if there was a passing of the torch in progress. His father and uncles had protected the whole world out of anonymity for years after they had delivered the people from the yoke of the gods. Now they were preparing to leave after saving them from the Dukes of Hell. The mantle was falling to Gage, and himself and their friends to guard their world going forward. At least they were not alone. Over the years they had made numerous friends and Sam, the wise high priest would be able to guide them when they needed direction.

Who knew? There may come a day when the young Dylan, Cindy and Coran's own child would go off and save the world from some terrible fate. Who knew from where tomorrow's heroes would come?