“Anyway, we have to decide what to do with her. Will she be all right?”
Rupert looked at Jenn, “I don’t know. Jenn?” He shook her awake.
Jenn opened her eyes again. Rupert was once again looking down at her. The demon was still standing nearby. What was she going to do? The ring was destroyed, the demon was standing there, probably about to torture them. Why it hadn’t already was a mystery. In fact, why she was still alive was a mystery. Apparently the demon had some sort of devious scheme in mind, and was simply holding off torturing them until it go what it wanted.
She had to get a hold of herself. This really was getting ridiculous. She didn’t know why she’d fainted in the first place, and she really couldn’t keep this up. Despite how much she dreaded doing so, she would have to get up, face the demon, and try to figure some way to get Rupert and herself away from it.
She sat up and tried to compose herself slightly. “All right demon. Just exactly what do you want?” There was no sense in beating around the bush, she couldn’t hope to beat the demon in any scheme that it had. Demons were notoriously tricky and she simply did not have the experience to outwit a fourth order demon.
“Nothing,” Tom answered, “your friend, who seems to have deserted you, simply asked for my assistance and I gave it.”
“Uh huh, well thank you very much, we appreciate it, now what do you intend to do with us.” The good thing was that the demon was no longer thundering at them, but its gravelly bass voice still sent shivers up her spine.
“Nothing, why?”
“Don’t give me that, demon. I know you’re up to something. What I want to know is why you’re still here. It is my guess that if you could harm us, you would have.” Jenn hoped she was right, otherwise... “but you haven’t. So I want to know exactly why you’re still here. Did Lenamare or Jehenna tell you to stay with us?”
“No, and what makes you think I couldn’t harm you. I figured that demonstration with the ring would convince you that I’m not currently constrained by any summons.”
Jenn got noticeably paler. The idea that he wasn’t constrained and could still harm them was exactly what she was afraid of. “OK,” she conceded, “I admit, that was rather convincing; however, if you are free to do as you please, then why haven’t you killed us.” She knew she was taking a risk, she really didn’t want to encourage it, but she felt she had to know.
“Look. I’m not here to kill you. If I wanted to, you wouldn’t be talking to me. The fact is, I just saved your ass from those people, and I’d just come down the hill to see if you were all right. OK? I’m sorry if my concern for your well-being has upset you.” Tom was beginning to get annoyed at this girl.
“Don’t give me that. No demon cares about any human’s well-being. You want something from us, otherwise you’d have left.” Jenn stated emphatically.
Tom was getting extremely annoyed, and so he spoke just a little bit louder now, “ALL I MIGHT LIKE-IS POSSIBLY-A LITTLE GRATITUDE. I JUST SAVED YOUR DAMN LIFE. DON’T YOU THINK YOU COULD AT LEAST BE POLITE TO ME. IF YOU WANT ME TO LEAVE, I WILL.” Tom stepped back in preparation for fading out, when suddenly Rupert ran up and grabbed his knee.
“Rupert!” cried Jenn in shock.
“Please, please don’t leave, Tom,” Rupert asked hurriedly, holding on to Tom’s upper knee. “Exador’s people have just killed all of the people we were with. More soldiers may be around. If they find us, we’ll be dead for sure. Can’t you just ignore her and stay with us for a while... until we reach somewhere safe.”
“Rupert! What the hell are you doing? You’re asking a loose demon to save us from humans! Boy, have you lost all sense of reality?” shouted Jenn.
“I know what I’m saying, Jenn,” Rupert looked over his shoulder at Jenn. “You know you couldn’t protect us from a large group of soldiers. Tom could though. Who’s going to attack a fourth order demon? No one! He’d be the perfect person to escort us to Freehold. Jehenna’s abandoned us, we certainly won’t make it alone.”
Tom looked at the little boy, and then at Jenn. For once he had to agree with the girl. This Rupert must be a little weird. From all he knew of demons and their relationship with Astlanians, if he were an Astlanian, he wouldn’t ask for a demon’s help.
However, the kid did have a point. Nobody would bother them with him around. The more important question, though, was why should he bother? After all, what had these people ever done for him. Aside from killing him, enslaving him, and forcing him to kill others? Actually the more he thought of it, the more reasons there were that he should just leave them.
