Zuggtmoy saw the plan in much the same way. 'My cousin, Szhublox, will command my forces,' she announced. 'With Orcus and all the other great ones there to contest with the pitiful few lords which Graz'zt will have in his horde, there is no need for me to fight there. I will staunchly assist you, dear Wilva,in standing by Iuz during the course of his victory.'
Later, out on the field where they were drawn up for attack all of the great ones of the Abyss joined to overthrow Graz'zt saw Iuz and the two behind him as he took the central position. Each of the demon lords there hated the cambion, cast covetous glances at the Theorpart he bore, but none, not even the demonking Orcus, denied him the place. Orcus had made a pact with Iggwilv regarding the Theorparts their alliance would hold soon. On the other hand, Areex had dealings with Zuggtmoy, while Baphomet was again treating by secret message with the ebon demonking.
In truth, most of the various powerful nobles of the Abyss had one or more treacherous plots and alliances ready in case things went wrong … or right. To suggest that double-dealing was rife is to point toward manure as an attraction to flies. Yet despite all that, the throng of demonlords and their soldier demons by the tens of thousands were there ready and eager for the battle.
'He is actually moving to engage us?' Iuz said incredulously.
That is because he has much stiffening,' Iggwilv said, muttering a terrible curse immediately thereafter as she beheld Graz'zt's moving army rolling toward them. 'See the sow beside him? Elazalag!' (The disgust in the word made it filthy). 'Fortunately for you, dear boy, I brought my own little weapon with me,' she added, drawing forth a thick crooked wand.
The Baton d'Agrue!' the cambion exclaimed. 'You said it was lost!'
'Don't believe everything you hear,' Iggwilv said with a cackle. 'Your poor mother must have some secrets — and a little something to protect herself with.'
As if not wishing to be outdone, Zuggtmoy produced a strange, cauldronlike vessel with a myriad of projections and bumps, things like knobs, spouts, nozzles, and some unidentifiable extrusions, too. This little kettle will help keep things warm for them,' she said, as the thing grew to the size of a great pot before Iuz's gaze.
'You, too? What is that thing?' he demanded, feeling uncomfortable despite his firm grip on the artifact.
The Cauldron of Corruption,' she supplied as she adjusted the largest of the nozzles to point toward the advancing Graz'zt. 'If you think my little myconid demonlings are potent, wait until I loose the dweomers from this upon those- '
'Muck! What good are those toys of yours — your wand, Iggwilv, that bulking pot, Zuggtmoy — against a Theorpart?'
'Little use, if any, you stu- splendid master of enemies,' Iggwilv managed to say without too much fury coming forth. 'I — we, Zuggtmoy and I — will use these to spoil any attacks from the rotted Eye of Deception. Thank us both, or else Graz'zt would have you!'
'Oh. . Well, I suppose that is why I picked you two as consorts, right? Still, it is I who must bear the brunt of things.'
There wasn't time for more such banter. The army led by Graz'zt and Elazalag had come on with deceptive speed, and the front of both forces was suddenly alive with minor spells and hails of nonmagical missiles as the opposing masses rushed to the melee.
It was a mental cry of fear and surprise from Orcus that alerted Iuz and his co-laborers that it was not Graz'zt who came at them. Iggwilv didn't believe what she had heard, neither did Zuggtmoy, but it was Iuz who managed to prove that the gross demonking's telepathic message had been correct. Orcus had found himself facing Graz'zt himself, with relic and sword both. The ram-headed demon took one look at that, shrieked his mental shriek and then fled the fray, using his own weapon's energies to escape.
Upon hearing all of that telepathically, the cambion turned the force of his Theorpart upon the foe who strode toward him. The dark energy sizzled, burned away the illusion, and there stood a small man with two companions rather than the ebon demon.
'Iuz, I presume,' the gray-eyed human sent in telepathic greeting. The calmness of the thought sent a shiver down the cambion's jagged-edged spine. Reflexively, Iuz threw a blast of withering stuff out from the artifact. It was a distillation of his own vileness, meant to shred the man's flesh from his bones. Laughing derisively, the small human tossed the bolt aside with a flick of his sword. Iuz saw that the blade of that weapon now glimmered with the disquieting luminescence of the ray he had sent out. That was enough to convince the cambion.
When she saw what Iuz was doing, Iggwilv used her twisted wand to weave a link to her son. 'No, you don't,' she muttered in desperation. It was all too apparent to the ancient witch. The fell champion of Balance was upon them, and without an army of demons to assist, Iuz had no intention of facing man and sword. He was using the Awakener to transport himself to safety. Iggwilv's magical link acted as a towline, so she would be carried to safety along with the cambion.
At the same instant that occurred, Zuggtmoy had enmeshed both in her own demonic field. She clutched her Cauldron of Corruption in a deathlike grip and prepared for the shock that she knew was coming. Then Iuz winked out of existence there, leaving a cloud of burning motes behind as he vanished with a bang. Iggwilv followed a split-second after, at the same moment Zuggtmoy went, for both were now corded to the cambion.
'He is a coward,' Gellor said at that, 'but a quickwitted one!'
'Not smart enough, my friend,' Gord replied. 'That little trick which Allton and Timmil managed, remember?' The troubador nodded curtly, although Leda looked puzzled. 'A magical means of pursuit,' Gord explained to her tersely. 'That feat was nothing compared to what I can manage now, Gellor. Hold onto your harp, there — and you to the Theorpart, Leda. I'll force a pathway to wherever the bloated scum has fled.'
The hellish battle surrounding them was gone in a heartbeat. Graz'zt and his minions would now have things their own way, for the invading force was left to its own means, just as Demogorgon had deserted his horde when Gord had stripped Infestix of the relic and that daemon had been sent howling away to his own nethersphere. 'He planned to slay us for the Theorparts, you know,' Leda said. Her voice echoed weirdly in the non-space the three were now sailing through.
'Of course. It was if he waved a banner proclaiming his intentions overhead even as the lout thought to dissemble,' Gord laughed. 'He didn't have any idea of this outcome — or of the true powers of either his Theorpart or my Courflamme here.'
'A little music will soothe us all.' Gellor announced, and he began to play an air with piercingly sweet high notes floating above a rippling bass. 'It is a chaconne which speaks of the perfidy of demons. I had meant if for the six-fingered one when he thought to devour our souls; now it seems appropriate to our circumstances.'
The end of the quasi-space came just at that point it was evident to Gord that his comrade had been aware of their imminent arrival in the domain of the cambion. 'A true hero, you grizzled old trouper!' he managed to call as the three were wrenched into the new place.
It took them a moment to gain their bearings and calm their senses. The shock wasn't merely from the jolt of leaving the distorted passageway that Gord had wrought in part it was caused by the place they found themselves in. Iuz had chosen to flee to the great stratum of the fungi queen, Zuggtmoy. They were in a nightmare place, a realm that could only be likened to some great underground cavern where fantastic and weird fungi sprouted from noisome soil, and nothing clean had ever existed.
'Mycorji.' The name came to Gord's mind, and he spoke it aloud. 'This is the stinkhole of Zuggtmoy.'
'Where have Iuz and his whores gotten to?' Leda asked. Her voice bore a heavy tone of hatred. Shared memories, those of the dead Eclavdra, caused the burden of hatred to well up in her and burst out as she spoke.
'Not far,' Gellor said with assurance, as he continued to play. The sound of his melodious fingerwork was rotting the tall, disgusting growths all around. As the things toppled and ran into putrid puddles, there was clearly revealed the entrance to a grotto that lay below the place where the three now stood. 'See there?'
'I do,' Gord nodded. 'Let's finish this work quickly,' he said, and the three of them began descending immediately. The silvery notes from the bard's kanteel announced their coming, of course, even as did the heaps of deadly fungi that collapsed from the sound.
Iuz was like a cornered rat. His fangs were bared, and the half-demon was desperate, filled with a deadly mixture of fear and hatred that might just prove sufficient to serve. Seeing the diamond and jet of Courflamme, the cambion willed a larger and deadlier blade from his Theorpart. The relic responded, of course, and suddenly Iuz was
