After Rupert had gone down into the camp, Tom had allowed himself to fade back to his cave. He’d then sat and tried to ‘listen’ for Rupert. He’d also replayed the scene with the demons who’d captured Jenn in his mind. Somehow, they’d opened some sort of physical gateway to take her physically through. They didn’t just fade out. That would be a handy trick he decided. For one thing if he could do it, then he could bring stuff from Astlan to make his cave nicer. Finally, he heard Rupert calling his name, and it had been very hard to hear, he was glad he’d been listening. At that point, Tom had decided to try a different approach from his normal one. Instead of fading, he tried to imagine a doorway or hole that led to Rupert. He’d concentrated on it, and imagined Rupert calling him from just the other side. Eventually, he was able to see Rupert, in much the same way he’d seen Jehenna, and this time he just punched a hole through the image and opened a hole. From there he’d just stepped through.
It had been a completely different sensation, more like a momentary sense of vertigo and then there he was. No fading, no gentle switching of planes, he just stepped through, as if stepping over a large chasm. They’d all been damn lucky he had done it this way. If that hole hadn’t still been there, he didn’t think he’d have been able to get the others out. The soldiers had surrounded the tent.
Naturally, he could have killed them all, fairly easily, but in the time that took, Rupert and Jenn would probably have died in the fire or by the arrows of the guards. It was also nice not to have to kill anyone for a change. All he’d had to do was slightly maim a guy. That seemed like a major improvement. Nonetheless, it had still been too close for any real comfort on his part. He’d almost blown it completely. He really needed to think a little more first. He wouldn’t always be so lucky.
Tom looked over to where Jenn was trying to wake up the passed out Gastropé. Tom had hoped he’d seen the last of that guy. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, he’d been tied up with Jenn. He really couldn’t blame her for wanting to rescue the guy. Under more normal circumstances, say as in back in Harding, he would have done the same, probably. At least he liked to think so. Now of course, like in so many things, he seemed much more detached, more cavalier about such small things. Small things? he was talking about a man’s life after all. Not exactly small, but that was the problem, Tom just kept finding himself thinking and acting ruthlessly.
Not that Tom was the only one with mental problems in this group. Actually, he thought, all of them had severe issues. Gastropé was a coward of the first degree, no confidence what-so-ever. Jenn had one severe attitude problem, probably came from being a wizard. Rupert had finally lost the few remaining face cards in his deck, and there was no question that Tizzy was blatantly psychotic, neurotic, and a few other — otics to boot. The worst part was that Tizzy and Rupert were over there in a corner talking back and forth like old buddies. The little demon was certainly not helping Rupert’s condition. Whatever that condition was.
Fortunately, Rupert had agreed to listen to reason and not go gallivanting off with Tizzy. Following that, however, Jenn had informed him that she and Gastropé couldn’t keep their spells up for long and that she expected him to return them all to Astlan very soon. He didn’t know what spells she was talking about, unless it was the light spell, but Tizzy had made the same comment before asking about eating them. So, he had to get them out of there, he guessed. The question was, how?
He might be able to open another hole, it had been slightly tiring, but not too bad. Unfortunately, he didn’t know for sure where to open one at. Boggy had once mentioned something about needing a focal point for demons to find a place in Astlan. A wizard conjuring them, or something similar. The last two times he’d gone willingly to Astlan, he’d had someone calling him that he could focus on. He didn’t have that now. Would simply imagining a place he’d been, be sufficient? Was fire needed? it had always been there in the past. He just didn’t know. They really needed something like Demon-Ed. After all, if you had to take a class to drive a car, shouldn’t you also have to take one to be a demon? Being a demon was a lot more dangerous; to others at least.
