Needless to say, this is neither an easy nor safe task to undertake. Further, all of what demons say must be considered suspect, since it is well known that among their greatest passions is lying (the others being rape, murder {not necessarily in that order}, cheating, wholesale slaughter, destruction, debauchery, gluttony, and lewd conduct as well as general maleficence. Oh yes, and foremost, thwarting their master’s aims and plans and seeing to his eventual ruination). As that is all that can be said, I thank you for your attention.
“Well, yeah, that probably was a small nuclear device Lenamare activated.” Tom said as he peered through the distance to where the castle had been. It was dark out, and the ex-castle was far away, but as Tom had discovered, neither was much of an impediment to demonic sight. Not that the dark mattered too much. The crater in which Lenamare’s castle had stood, except for a small finger on which Exador’s army was perched, glowed an unnerving blue. The trees around the crater had been burned to grayish stumps.
“I’m not so sure it’s a good idea for those guys to be camped there,” Tom commented, thoughtfully.
“Why not?” asked Rupert who was twisting around in Tom’s arms to see the encampment.
“Radiation. If, as the blue glow would seem to indicate, that place is highly radioactive, everyone inside will get very sick.”
“Well good,” Rupert said, “they are the enemy after all. However, while I don’t know what this radiation stuff you’re talking about is, you can be pretty sure Exador would have taken precautions to protect his people from it. He’s at least as good as Lenamare.”
“We can hope so, because enemy or not, radiation sickness is pretty bad from what I’ve heard. Besides, we think Jenn is down there. Right?”
“Oh, yeah. I guess that’s right.” Rupert conceded.
“So, how do we find out if she’s there?” Tom asked. “I’m not exactly inconspicuous.”
“Well, I thought about that,” said Rupert. “I can walk down there, acting like I’m lost and crying for my big sister Jenn. They capture me and put me with her.”
“I don’t know,” Tom said, unsure. “One, it sounds kind of corny, and I doubt they’d go for it, and two, it’s way too dangerous for you. Finally three, then you’re all captured, what good does that do?”
“Well, once they capture me, all I have to do is get a fire going, and I have flint and steel, then I can use your true name to conjure you; if you are willing, I don’t need any spells. Then, once you are there, you can maul our way out.”
“Hmm great,” Tom was just thrilled at the prospect of killing more people. “It’s still too dangerous for you.”
“Look, they’re people, they may be the enemy, but they’re not going to kill off a harmless little kid immediately. At the very least if they know I’m a student they’ll want to torture me to make me talk.”
“Oh, that really convinces me there.”
“Look, if they torture me I can use the flames they heat the irons with to summon you.” Rupert said smiling. “Look, they’re not going to hurt me. I can take care of myself.”
“Uh huh, and what if they’ve got more demons down there? They might not care, and just see a little wizard kid and kill him.”
“I’m not afraid of demons.”
“So... I’ve... noticed...” Tom said. “Look, I can’t be responsible for you getting caught, hurt and maybe killed.”
“Tom,” Rupert said, in that way little kids get when they’re exasperated with a stupid adult, “I know what I’m doing. They’re not going to hurt me. It’s the only way, unless you can shape change into a little kid? or an animal or something.”
“Uhmm.” Tom didn’t know about that. He’d never tried and wouldn’t really know where to begin. “Let me think.” What was he going to do? He couldn’t let the kid go down there and get himself captured. Even if they did capture him and didn’t kill him, there was no guarantee they had Jenn in captivity or would put Rupert in the same place as her. He just couldn’t think of a better plan.
This was insane, true, it was keeping in line with every other thing he’d seen these wizards do, but still. Sending a nine year old kid into the middle of the enemy encampment didn’t seem like the heroic thing to do. On the other hand, if he just went marching in, a lot of people would get killed including Jenn.
“All right. It’s against my better judgment, but I don’t know what else to do.” Tom conceded.
Rupert just smiled in triumph at getting his way.
