“Aaaaaggghhhhh!” Jenn said in frustration. What had that damned demon done? Had it kidnapped Rupert back to the Abyss? If so, the poor kid was gone. How could she ever get him back? The sound of her voice woke Gastropé.
“What’s the matter,” he asked, rubbing his eyes.
“The demon! That’s the matter!”
Gastropé immediately jumped to his feet looking around wildly. “Where?”
“He’s not here, nor is Rupert! That’s the problem, I don’t know where they went!” Even as she said this, the door to the outside opened. Goddess! they’d forgot to bar it again. How stupid could they have been? Light, albeit not incredibly bright due to the overhang in the ally way, poured into the room. Rupert stepped into the room. Jenn sighed a sigh of relief.
“Rupert, where have you been, you don’t know how...” her voice trailed off as a young man followed Rupert into the room. She had no idea who he was. He was roughly her own age, but a bit taller, with rather long curly black hair. He was wearing breeches tightly belted at the waist and a shirt that didn’t fit too well. Actually, he was rather cute, she thought in the back of her mind. As he carefully shut the door behind them however, Jenn noticed that he seemed extremely tense. Like he was trying to keep something bottled up. He was almost gritting his teeth. She imagined he’d be turning red in a moment from the stress he seemed to be under.
“Who are you?” Gastropé’ asked the young man.
“His name is Edwyrd,” Rupert said quickly. “He’s my cousin.”
“Your what?” Jenn asked. She didn’t know Rupert had any cousins. Certainly it was unlikely he’d just pop out and find one immediately after entering a strange city.
“His cousin,” the young man said tensely. “Amazing really. I’d just entered town, passing through, and I stopped in the market to get an apple when who should appear out of nowhere but Rupert.” The fellow seemed to be forcing himself to seem casual.
Gastropé and Jenn looked at each other. It sounded just a little too strange. Coincidences like that just didn’t happen. Jenn stopped suddenly, where was the demon? “Rupert where’d the...” she paused, thinking of the priest, and this unknown Edwyrd fellow, “Tom, go?”
Rupert looked up at Edwyrd and said, “uhm, he had to return home suddenly. Something about some conclave of... uhm,” he looked at the priest, knowing what Jenn actually meant, “... animages, meeting.” He didn’t care so much about letting the priest know anything about the demon, it was just that it was probably better to play along with Jenn so she wouldn’t suspect Edwyrd.
Gastropé was looking back and forth between Rupert and Jenn, totally lost. “Who’s Tom? and what about the d...”
“You know,” Jenn said cutting him off suddenly, “Tom was the fellow who got upset with you when we first met.” She gestured with her head to the priest and the hand by her side to Edwyrd. Gastropé caught on, sort of.
“Oh. Yeah.”
What was Rupert talking about? Conclave of animages? demons, she supposed he meant. Why would the demon all of the sudden leave them for a meeting of demons? What did that portend? A meeting of demons, could it have something to do with this book? The whole thing didn’t make much sense, but she couldn’t exactly question Rupert more closely in the presence of the priest and Edwyrd. She really didn’t want to freak people out any more than necessary.
Actually, Rupert had looked at Edwyrd before answering. Ah, maybe that explained his tense look. Maybe Rupert had told him about the demon. Any sane person would certainly get tense and look like that if they had to worry about a demon popping up at any moment. Goddess knew the demon made her feel that way. Of course, he could also be kind of tense because he’d just walked into a temple in which three ragged individuals were holding a priest hostage. He might be leery of the company his cousin was keeping. She couldn’t blame him for that either. Not that she exactly trusted Edwyrd for that matter. It was just too strange for Rupert to just wander out and find his cousin like that.
“Fine, well, ok. So you went out. You really should not have gone alone, that was really stupid, Rupert. What’s the name of the city then?”
“Gizzor Del,” Rupert answered.
“Gizzor Del? where’s that?”
“I don’t know,” Rupert said. Gastropé also gave her a blank look. “It is however, ruled by a guy named Duke Swery.”
That didn’t help much. She looked at Edwyrd. He came in through the gates, he should know. “Where is Gizzor Del?” she asked him. “I would think you would know, since you were passing through.”
He looked at her in surprise, it took him a moment to say anything. “Why don’t you know? You had to come in the same way, didn’t you?” That shut her up. The priest knew how they came in, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to explain it to this Edwyrd fellow. It was really just a bit much to try and explain to a complete stranger. Ok, this wasn’t going to get her any further. She turned to look down at the priest.
