“Two to three others?” Lilith asked, apparently surprised.
“Yes, we haven’t got a clue who they might be. That’s one reason I wanted to talk to you. Do you know of any alliances Ramses’ might be involved in at the moment?”
Lilith tilted her head for a moment, obviously trying to weigh what she would say. “Well I do monitor the man, every now and then.” Antefalken just nodded, he knew she would, what with her reputation. “I can’t think of any alliances with any other archdemons. As for humans, while he might be able to put up with this Lenamare for a while, you know there has been bad blood between Ramses and the various Wizards Exador since the Anilord days.”
“That slightly predates my time, but yes, I do recall that Exador’s ancestor at the time of the Anilords, Vicar-General Exador, did cause problems for the Anilords.”
“To Ramses included, as did the Aniwizard Exador a few thousand years before that.” Lilith added.
“The Aniwizard Exador?” Antefalken asked.
“Another distant ancestor of the current wizard,” Lilith stated. “Gave Ramses a lot of trouble during his first attempt at Astlanian conquest. The point being, it is highly doubtful that Ramses would be aligned in anyway with an Exador. Lenamare or someone else, perhaps, but not Exador.”
“But you don’t know of someone else?” Antefalken asked.
“Sorry,” she scratched lightly at Antefalken’s chest with the almost claw like fingernails of her right hand. “I do dislike the man, but I’ve tried to ignore him since I haven’t been able to do much about him.” She put the now empty snifter on the floor. “Why don’t we discuss something more interesting now, something we don’t need so many tiresome words for?” She arched her back pushing him back down into the silk sheets of her bed.
“Fine with me...” Antefalken smiled.
“I’m so gla.a.a.d...” Lilith purred, her blood red lips coming down to meet his.
“Boggy!” Tom exclaimed in surprise. He and Rupert had just returned to ‘The Ripe Young Maiden’s Surprise,’ intending to wait for Antefalken. As they’d entered the western style swinging doorway, he noted his friend sitting at a booth over on the left.
Boggy looked up from what looked like a large cup of coffee and smiled. He waved for the two to join him. “Tom!” he said as the two walked up. “What a pleasant surprise.” Tom was pleasantly surprised to find that the booth seemed almost designed for demons. The seat was a ways back from the table, and the rear of the seat had a large hole to accommodate tails. It was also high enough of the ground so, while a bit small for Tom, it was certainly much larger than human size. He slid in, Rupert followed. “What brings you here? And who’s your doppelganger?” Boggy asked, he also made a motion for the waiter to come over. “Let me buy you some Denubian Choco-CoffeeTM.”
“I’m waiting for a friend who had some business in town. This is Rupert.” Tom didn’t bother trying to explain the resemblance. He couldn’t.
“Please to meet you.” Boggy stuck out a hand to Rupert. Rupert took it, apparently excited to meet another demon.
“Boggy here is Tizzy’s partner.” Tom told Rupert.
“You’ve met Tizzy then?” Boggy asked Rupert. “Haven’t seen the scoundrel in some time.”
Rupert was nodding happily. “He ended up taking a little trip with us to Astlan, and hasn’t been back since.” Tom told Boggy.
“You didn’t let him wander too far off and cause too much trouble did you?” Boggy asked slightly concerned.
“No, he’s in good company in Freehold, behaving himself.” Tom hoped.
“Not under duress?” Boggy asked.
“Not at all, in fact the first thing he did was to wander off to kill his accursed master and then returned right to us and been quite helpful.”
“Helpful?” Boggy snorted, “are you sure we’re talking about the same demon?” Tom just smiled and nodded.
As the waiter, a rather lizard like demon of more width than height brought them their drinks, Rupert started plying Boggy with questions. Many of them were one’s he’d already asked Boggy, about what it was Boggy did and this and that, so he didn’t listen too closely. Instead, he took the time to look around the place.
Actually, with the exception of the habitual red light that seemed more omnipresent in this part of the Abyss than near his cave, the place seemed to be a cross between a western saloon and perhaps a small town cafe. Booths lined the wall to the left of the door, while a long bar that was almost like a lunch counter with round stools in front of it, ran the length of the right hand wall. Scattered round tables filled the space in between. The doors had been the short swinging type found in western movies and two large windows flanking the doors gave a view out onto the street. At this time of night, or at least he guessed it was night, the place was moderately busy but not packed.
