Into the Abyss полностью

“I don’t know,” Damien answered as he moved to sit on a couch. “Their story of traveling through the Abyss to get to Gizzor Del certainly coincides with what you smelled in Tom’s cave. Most of the rest sounds more or less like what either Exador or Lenamare have said, without so much frosting.”

“The trip from Gizzor Del seemed a bit strange.” Antefalken commented.

“Yes, they weren’t telling us everything. They certainly arrived amazingly fast. However, since that’s where the Rod is and presumably the archdemon, maybe they’d become hesitant. I know they hadn’t meant to give away the part about the archdemon. They’d just assumed I’d known.”

“Yes. That’s an interesting piece.” Antefalken flew up to the back of a nearby chair to take his usual position. “I wasn’t aware of any archdemon’s definitely involved. However it fits in well with what we’re starting to learn of this Tom.”

“Even on the time part of it. It may just be the way they learned of it, but I’m reasonably certain the involvement of this archdemon is pretty recent. It could coincide with the disappearance of Tom in Gizzor Del. He could have gone to report to his superior, or if he is the archdemon himself, to muster his forces.”

“Well, since it was only last night I talked to Tom, we at least have some idea of what he’s doing. He’s training and dealing with at least one other demon in the Abyss right now. I don’t know of any armies mustering though. I’d have thought to hear something in the Courts.”

“Things aren’t getting any clearer. That is certain. What about this book? Any ideas what book an archdemon and two powerful conjurers would want?” Antefalken just shook his head, as puzzled as Damien.

Damien shifted on the couch. “At any point did you get a good luck at our guests?”

Antefalken shrugged, “somewhat.”

“Anything?”

“Well,” Antefalken mused for a moment, “Jenn and Gastropé seem to be what they claim. Edwyrd and Maelen are both big time players though. Maelen is probably what he modestly says he is a Seer and a Healer. Probably pretty good at both. Edwyrd didn’t claim to be anything. I would guess however, from looking at his aura and listening to him, he’s a world class player. What part he plays, I don’t know. The little kid is also probably what he says; kids are hard to read. Whatever the case, he’s got an awful big aura for what they claim. He could just be a prodigy of some sort. Further, his aura is in the same range as Edwyrd’s. Edwyrd’s shares a few similarities to Maelen. Knowing what Maelen does, I’d have to guess that Edwyrd is in a similar line of work. At least in terms of how he handles mana.”

“An animage then?” Damien asked. While Maelen had claimed to be a Seer and Healer, usually only Animages were both. The man hadn’t said he was an Animage though.

“I guess, I haven’t read the auras of that many Animages.” Antefalken said. “Rupert on the other hand had similarities to different parts of Edwyrd’s aura, and other things that I’ve taken to indicate a wizard in the past.”

Damien just shook his head, not knowing what to make of the information. “The problem, as you know,” Antefalken continued, “is that while demonic sight is a little bit better than wizard sight, it still isn’t very exact. I’d suspect that a Seer like Maelen could be a lot more precise. That’s part of what Seers do for a living after all.”

“The question,” Damien said, “is where do we go from here in our little jigsaw puzzle. We now have more of the pieces, but none of them seem to fit.”

“I suppose, you’ll want to tell your buddies on the highly-esteemed Council of Wizards, that in addition to having two warring wizards and a marching Rod on their hands, they’ve also got an archdemon coming for dinner?” Antefalken suggested with a smile.

“Don’t,” Damien groaned, “remind me. This is not going to be pleasant. I fear I’ll be trapped all afternoon and evening.”