Overall, Talarius counted fifteen demons of first or second order in the city. Anywhere else this would have been alarming. As it was, Talarius shook his head. He wondered where the Archaedemon was. Surely, it wouldn’t be in the Council Palace. Nonetheless, it was time to pass over the palace. What the Holy Mirror of Erastimus revealed nearly unseated him.
Talarius had to circle the Palace of Evil several times before he could believe what he was seeing. How could it have gone so far? Had the entire Council of Wizards been taken over already? Through the mirror, the entire palace was lit with red spots. They must be virtually lining the corridors with first order demons! There were literally hundreds of them! While there were large areas, he presumed private chambers, free of the red; the spider work dot pattern of red lights seemed to indicate that there were demons spread throughout the halls.
That however, was the least of his worries. Intermixed in the red were several orange and even yellow lights. There were probably another fifteen or twenty orange lights in the building and maybe five or six yellow. To top this off, there was a definite bright green light moving through the castle even as he watched. This was unthinkable; he’d never seen so much activity in one place. However, all these lights paled before the final fact that made Talarius sick to his stomach, he felt his bowels rumbling.
It was hard to tell because of the close proximity of all of them, two especially, but there really could be no question. There was one light blue light with a slight turquoise tinge and two rather dark blues. There might be more, but there were at least three. Three Archaedemons! In one place! At one time! Talarius prayed. He prayed deeply and sincerely. He prayed that this test might not fall upon his shoulders. A challenge of one Archaedemon he’d foolishly looked forward to. But three at once! Talarius had never known fear, at least not of anything physical or tangible, and he didn’t believe that was what he felt now. Trepidation might be the word. Whatever it was, Talarius did not enjoy it.
“You’re sure?” Barabus asked Talarius. The knight had awakened the general as soon as he’d returned. At first, Barabus had been annoyed, thinking the report could wait until dawn. When he’d put on his robe and had Talarius shown in, he’d intended to reprimand the man. However, one look at the pale, drawn face of the knight, and the words had died on his lips. He’d sat down preparing for the worst. What the knight proceeded to tell him certainly qualified on that score. He couldn’t believe it. Except that Talarius would never lie about anything, much less this.
“Absolutely,” was all the man standing in armor, helmet under arm said. Barabus gestured for Talarius to sit. The man did, for once, actually seeming to need to sit. Barabus looked at the floor; Talarius simply stared at Barabus.
“Well,” Barabus said weakly, “it’s not quite the end of the world. You saw no indigo or violet.”
“Not tonight.” Barabus glanced up at the knight, who was completely serious.
“Three Archaedemons in the very stronghold of wizardry. There is no way such beings could be undetected. They must have overthrown the Council of Wizards, or at least corrupted and subsumed them. This is unquestionably bad. We outnumber the demons still, even so, given demonic ability that outnumbering only seems to even the playing field. Add to that the three Archaedemons and who knows what else and we are overpowered. Even you can’t defeat three Archaedemons.”
“Not in concert, separately, Tiernon willing, I can. If they act together, we have an uphill battle on our hands.”
“I need to speak to Iskerus, this will have to go directly to the Portant. There is no other choice. We will have to have reinforcements if we are to prevail. We will also need them here as fast as possible.”
“How fast can you get them here?” Talarius asked.
“I’m going to ask the Portant for all of the Rod stationed on Eton. I will also urge that we create a Runic Gateway to bring them through as fast as possible.”
“Every member on the continent, that’s one-half of the entire Rod. Will it be enough?”
“I only pray. Given such short notice though, abandoning our other interests elsewhere to bring more would only bring ruin on our head. If we had time for proper withdrawal and reorganization, then we could probably spare three-fourths of our forces. I will of course, request a Holy Synod to help battle the demons’ magical influences. I’m not sure what else I can do.”
Talarius nodded his head. “I will also call on Sirs Gadius, Etrias and Soral. They’ve had some demon fighting experience. They can, I am sure, be of assistance.”
“Does Etrias know of his brother’s fate?” Barabus asked.
“Given the short time since I submitted my report; I doubt Etrias has been informed of Etrian’s failure.” Talarius stated.
“Will it compromise his ability?” Barabus asked.
