Pael shuddered and collapsed. It was no longer his power holding the spell; it was the demon’s power. It was all the wizard could do to keep his eyes open to see what was happening to his familiar.
It was no quick process. The imp stretched, swelled, and screamed horribly into the night as the demon reshaped him. His body grew long and feline, like a giant warhorse-sized panther, whose tail was barbed and as long as a whip. The imp’s wings elongated and spread wide, like those of a wyvern, or a great dactyl. His claws grew long and razor sharp, and every inch of his body became as dark as the deepest night. Teeth, eyes, claws, fur and scales were all nearly indistinguishable, for the quality of their blackness.
The brilliant kinetic display ended abruptly, leaving the menacing looking result flapping its huge wings in a hover, just outside the gaping hole in Pael’s tower.
“Use this gift wisely Pael, for this is your familiar now,” the fading, yet still powerful voice of the spectral demon commanded. “Open the seal for me, and do it soon!”
With that the voice, and the ozonic power that it radiated, disappeared with a sharp pop.
Pael felt, as much as heard, the sound of the demon’s departure, and he was more than relieved by it.
Apparently, he had underestimated the spectral demon’s power. This alarmed him. The demon did need him though, that was obvious. He would just have to make sure that when he opened the doorway to the Nethers, that he had a way to bind Shokin to his service. That was a dilemma for another day though. He needed rest.
Almost as an afterthought, he turned towards the hellcat waiting outside his tower. He could still feel the familial bond with the creature, but he knew that it was no longer Inkling.
“Kill the one that wields Pavreal’s blade, and bring the sword to me!” Pael rasped the order, then closed his eyes and crumpled to the floor.
Chapter 21
As they traveled deeper into the foothills of the Giant Mountains, Hyden found himself thinking about the tale the elf Vaegon had told him, or more precisely, of the things that he hadn’t been told in the story.
He wondered what had happened to the other wolf pup, the one that had disappeared into the blizzard. Had it starved? Maybe it grew up to be strong and fierce, like the wolf that attached itself to Pratchert.
He glanced up into the clear, blue sky and saw Talon circling protectively above them; and then he went back to his thoughts. Dog Man! What a nickname: the Great Wizard, Dog Man? What a title. He laughed at the thought of some colorfully dressed herald calling that out at some royal ceremony. That provoked another series of thoughts and ideas, which only served to create more questions in his curious mind.
“Lord Gregory, who announces people at a kingdom…uh?” he stammered, and stuttered, searching for the word he was after. “A…uh… Council meeting?”
“We call it the Royal Court,” Lord Gregory answered.
The Western Lion had been feeling better with each passing day. He had even climbed down off of his horse and walked for half of a day, to help work the poison that remained in him, out of his muscles and joints.
They had been going downhill that morning. He tried walking uphill in the afternoon, but he wasn’t quite ready for that yet. The exertion had him back in the saddle, feeling weak and exhausted.
“The Court Announcer at my stronghold in Lake Bottom is also the local Sail Master,” Lord Gregory told him. Thoughts of his home put a smile on his face. “He’s a tiny little man, with a big deep voice. The King’s Royal Court Announcer at Lakeside Castle is as big as a whale and he stays in his cups. No one in the whole Kingdom of Westland can figure out how he gets all the names and titles right, even the strange foreign ones, especially while he is so stupendously drunk.”
“What’s a whale?” Hyden asked.
“It’s a giant sea fish, as big as that hill over there, and it breathes air through a hole in the top of its head,” the nobleman answered.
“Just because I’m not a kingdom born man,” Hyden said with a hint of anger in his voice, “don’t think you could have me believe just anything.”
Vaegon was at the top of the steep hill they were climbing, curiously scanning the evening horizon behind them. His glittery hair sparkled, as it blew about his shoulders in the cold mountain breeze. Hyden thought that even from where they were, far below the elf, he could see Vaegon’s strange, yellow eyes. It made him shiver, and he wondered if such fantastical things as whales really existed.
He liked Vaegon well enough, but no matter how many times he looked at him, he would never become comfortable with the fact that he wasn’t human.
“It’s no jest, Hyden Hawk. There are also smaller fish that are still five times bigger than a man, that have rows of teeth the size of dagger blades. They call them sharks, and believe it or not, they sometimes eat the whales one big bite at a time.”
“If that is true, then the sea is a place I’d like to see some day.” Hyden’s attention trailed away.
He noticed that Vaegon had been staring at the same place for quite some time now. He sensed that something had alarmed the elf. He quickened his pace, forcing Lord Gregory to spur his horse to keep up with him.
Vaegon could see the question form on Hyden’s lips as he gained the top of the rise.
“Someone, or something, is behind us,” he said.
“Where?” Lord Gregory asked sharply, as he turned his horse.
“There,” Vaegon pointed to an area a few hilltops back. “It’s in the valley now, out of view. I just caught a glimpse of movement before it went down out of sight. A dark horse maybe, or some other large creature.”
Hyden was peering from beneath his hand trying to see what they were talking about.
“About a day back you think?” he asked, when he saw what set of hills were in question.
“No more than that, if it’s men with horses,” Vaegon said, with growing concern in his voice. “Far less though if it’s a predator.”
“We’ll have to wait for it in the next valley then,” Hyden said with some disappointment and a sigh. “My village is close. I dare not lead anything or anyone else into it. Already, I am going to feel the full wrath of the Elders for bringing you two there.”
“What if it is a predatory beast, as the elf suggested?” asked Lord Gregory.
Before Hyden could answer, Talon came out of the sky and fluttered down to his shoulder gracelessly.
Though he wasn’t very big yet, Talon’s body had taken the true hawkling form. He was still too small to lift a field mouse into the air, but not too small to swoop down and kill one, a feat which he had proven the day before. When he was fully grown, he would be able to snatch a fat rabbit off the ground and fly away with it in his claws. His wings would be as wide as a man’s outstretched arms. At the moment though, he wasn’t much bigger than a crow. For all his smallness, the bird still found a way to posture itself proudly on Hyden’s shoulder.
“Go see what it is that’s following us, and then come back and tell me,” Hyden said jokingly to the bird.
To everyone’s surprise, save for Vaegon’s, Talon leapt back into flight, and started toward the valley where the elf had spotted the pursuit.
Hyden was confounded tenfold, when a weird, yet familiar, sensation came over him. It was just like the dreams he had been having as of late, yet he was awake. The sensation of seeing Lord Gregory and Vaegon in front of him, while seeing through Talon’s eyes, was overwhelming. It was too much for his mind to handle, and he was forced to close his eyes. When he did, it was as if he were in Talon’s body, flying over the foothills, with the cold mountain air streaming through his feathers.
Only the tops of the western facing hills were in the sunlight. The rest of the world was drowned in shadow, and the valley bottoms were even darker than the rest. He found them though: two men with four horses, two of which looked to be carrying a log. The group was moving slowly through the shadows, snaking their way down through a scatter of pine and scrub brush. They didn’t appear to be in a hurry. They were obviously not hunting Lord Gregory, but their direction of travel would lead them dangerously close to Hyden’s Village.
Talon swooped in closer, and landed on the gnarled branch of an ancient oak. It was tall, and it towered over the whole of the valley bottom. Near its base, a stream trickled and gurgled through the rocky area, where spring’s thaw had washed away the plants, and most of the soil. Even though there was very little light, the hawkling’s sharp eyes could pick out the details.
