“Jenn,” Gastropé intervened. “You know I don’t like demons any better than you, but if Rupert and Edwyrd think this will work, I’m willing to try. Having been through the Abyss more than once and lived, I’m willing to try again.” Jenn still shook her head unconvinced.
“I think,” Maelen told Jenn. “That our friend Edwyrd here can do it. I’ve seen what he’s done so far, and if he is as good at other areas of Animagic as he is at pyromastery and healing, then we have nothing to fear. If he says he can do it, I believe him.” Edwyrd wasn’t sure whether to thank the old man for the vote of confidence or ask him why he was so confident.
“You are all crazy. The Rod is certainly better than the Abyss. As I said, if it comes down between burning at the stake or my soul burning in the Abyss, I’ll take the stake.”
“Are you willing to let the rest of us burn at the stake too, Jenn?” Rupert asked. “Because we need to do this together, if you burn we all burn. I know I’m not too fond of the idea of guaranteed death at the hands of the Rod.” Jenn looked at him sourly. She just sat there for some time; no one said anything.
“You really don’t play fair, do you child?” Jenn asked Rupert, she smiled sadly as she said it. “You little demon you,” she shook her head as she said it, indicating it was a joke. Edwyrd was just glad she didn’t know the truth of it.
That decided, Edwyrd took a little more authority on himself, “Tizzy,” the octopodal demon looked at him. “How long will it take you to fly to Freehold?”
“How far is it?” Asked Tizzy. “Oh, and where is it?”
“Just follow this road through Yorkton up the pass into the mountains. The road leads directly there, it’s the first large city after you exit the mountains. A little over four hundred miles.” It was interesting, Edwyrd noted, that people in Astlan seemed to use miles as their base unit of distance. There didn’t seem to be any logical reason why a completely different culture would use the same base unit of distance as his own. It was also rather strange everyone spoke English. It was also strange that he’d never noticed this before. It seemed too fortunate for simple coincidence. He looked over at Tizzy, needing to know the demon’s answer in order to formulate a plan.
The little demon bent its head as if thinking. “Say, six hours. Six hours. Yep, that’s about it,” he looked maliciously at Jenn who was nodding, “give or take a day or three.” Jenn looked up and glared at the demon. “OK, maybe six hours then. Give or take a half.”
Actually, Edwyrd decided, listening closely, he wasn’t sure it was English. It didn’t quite sound like what he thought English should sound like; however, he couldn’t seem to determine what was different. Was it all somehow translated in his brain? Part of the demonizing process? Did he just think he was speaking in English rather than Astlanian? Did his brain just substitute furlongs, kilometers or leagues or whatever with the word miles?
At the moment he guessed it was irrelevant. What was important was that they get out of the way of the Rod. First, he should take care of that and then he’d worry about whether they were actually speaking English. “Fine then,” Edwyrd said as he stood up and walked over to Tizzy. “Let me establish a link to you.” He put his hand on Tizzy’s head and bent down to whisper in the demon’s ear.
“When you get there just summon me by my full name, Thomas Edwyrd Perkinje, I’m sure you’re familiar with what’s needed?” Tizzy just snickered and nodded.
“The link is established; when you get there, just concentrate and I’ll open a doorway for us.” Edwyrd said, standing up and speaking so everyone could hear. Tizzy nodded to them all and suddenly lifted off into the air. Waving a hand in farewell the demon sped off to Freehold.
Edwyrd looked around at the others, “Well, we’d best be preparing ourselves. I think we should try to make the translation in about five hours. We want to be sure and be there when Tizzy calls.
“Rupert,” Edwyrd said, “I’m going to need you to show me where to take us.” He winked secretly at the boy.
The five hours passed quickly. Or so Edwyrd thought, he had no clock to judge the time by, but Maelen seemed to know. They rounded up everything they had, as if they were preparing to take to the road again. After a bit of disagreement, Gastropé got his way and they loaded the donkey to bring it through also. Jenn complained about her and Gastropé not being able to cool everyone and the donkey, but surprisingly it had been Maelen who’d overruled her. The seer claimed that as part of something he called ‘Body Mastery’ he wouldn’t need a cool spell, and that he could probably extend himself to cover the donkey as well, if not the entire party. Given the idea, Edwyrd added that he could cover Rupert and himself, so Jenn and Gastropé need only worry about themselves.
