“I can go dig some more now that we are fairly sure we have three involved. I can at least look for threesomes that seem to be up to no good. Otherwise, just the stuff I heard the first time. The rumored plans for an overthrow of the demon princes by a cabal of archdemons. Standard stuff, doesn’t mean much.” Antefalken shrugged.
“Standard stuff, huh?” Damien asked, apparently preoccupied with something outside the window.
“Standard stuff, just talk. It’s not like anyone has that kind of power. None of the archdemons comes even close. If they did they’d have long since been destroyed or assimilated.” Antefalken said.
“Well, I know that I certainly wouldn’t feel like trying to deal with a demon prince.”
“Not without a really big bag of magic tricks, a true name and a hell of a lot of luck.” Antefalken agreed.
Damien chuckled. “An incredibly big bag. The luck would mainly be in getting the right name. I doubt even the demon princes remember their own true names anymore. Getting the right one would be the trick. I doubt there’s that much luck in the world to go around.”
Damien frowned slightly as he peered out the window. “You know, I’m not sure, but there appears to be a lot more soldiers in the Rod’s encampment than there were last night when I left them.”
“Tolerable, it will do.” Lenamare approved as he looked over Jenn’s shoulder. “Next time try to be a little cleaner in your cuts though.” Lenamare stood up and looked at his other assistants. Jenn was carving symbols into small amber spheres. Each student was busy preparing another component for Lenamare’s next major effort.
He had to admit to himself, that having students around was occasionally useful. It kept him and Jehenna from having to do a lot of tedious work. Assuming, of course, that the students did it correctly. It was for this that Lenamare still had to supervise them closely; nonetheless, it was still faster this way. As he was stepping over to Bromagni, Jehenna entered the room through the door on the east wall.
“Well?” she asked.
“Everything is going well. With good timing and organization, we should be able to proceed tomorrow evening with the spell.” Lenamare told her.
Jehenna nodded. “Good. It will be about time. Assuming it works.”
Lenamare twisted his mouth in a slight frown. “It had better work. We haven’t got much more time. I did some counting. There are more Rod members today then last night. Where they came from isn’t clear, but their numbers seem to be growing.”
“Growing?” Jehenna asked.
“Growing. That means that they feel that the situation is escalating and they need more manpower.” Lenamare failed to notice Jenn’s frown of apprehension, or at least ignored it.
“You think the archdemon is preparing to move?” Jehenna asked.
“Possibly. Whatever the case, we can’t keep an archdemon and Exador in the dark forever about the book’s location. We have to open it. Use the information.”
“Use it wisely. We don’t want to rush and get ourselves killed in the process.”
“Naturally. Nothing shall be done without a plan and a direct purpose.”
Hortwell surveyed the countryside below him, over the edge of the rug. Very nice actually. Zilquar’s invisibility spell was interesting. It made the two of them, as well as Zargoffelstan flying above the carpet and their flying carpet invisible to the outside world, yet the two of them could see each other and the carpet underneath them. The two wizards had decided to go try a little stealthy reconnaissance. They were flying both invisible and close to the tree level. Exador still had wizards with his army. They did not want to risk being shot down.
As they came over the last rise and in sight of the crater, Hortwell’s mouth dropped in surprise. Apparently, they had had no need for invisibility. There was nothing there. Obviously no castle, but no army either. The little peninsula that had contained the remnants of Exador’s army was empty. No tents, no soldiers, no sign of the army. Where had they gone?
Zilquar and Hortwell exchanged glances. This was not good. From the sketchy reports they’d received via normal scouts, the army had been there last night. They were gone now. Hortwell scanned the campsite with his wizard’s sight. Nothing. No magic, no spells, nothing, the army was really gone, not invisible. Where had they gone? Zilquar directed the carpet in a low level path around the castle site.
As far as either wizards could tell, there was no appearance of a large migration of horses or men from the site. One would have expected some large path of tracks. But there was none. Just the normal tracks that one would expect around a camp that had been there for a couple weeks. Hortwell was puzzled. He would certainly have to report this to Lenamare.
Lenamare would not be pleased. Hortwell also supposed they’d best prepare to move out themselves. He was pretty certain Lenamare would want them with him in Freehold. Especially if a battle was coming. Once again, Hortwell just shook his head in bemusement.
