‘What does it contain that will help us?’ asked Sandreena, now genuinely interested.
‘Our experience with demons appears to have only touched a portion of their population. There are many details I will skip, but here’s one: Demons when summoned must be confined, else they run amok, or flee into dark places and hide, waiting for their opportunity to venture forth, then run. That’s the difference between the powerful demons and the clever ones. Occasionally, we find a clever one with some talent for magic; they are especially difficult.
‘Gulamendis and I have skills which can confine a demon’s choices when summoned. They are called into a circle of power that limits their ability to move without our permission. When I summon one, it must become subject to my will or I return it to the demon realm. If it becomes my servant, then I can give it permission to leave the confines of the circle.’
‘To terrorize villagers so you can part the gullible baron from his gold?’ Amirantha nodded. ‘Or perhaps put on a fetching visage and climb into your bed?’
Amirantha closed his eyes for a second, then said, ‘I will not tell you I am sorry one more time, Sandreena. I did what I did and you have continued to punish me for it every time we meet. Enough!’ His tone was sharp, but not loud. ‘Dalthea is…You bury three lovers over a century and see if you find the idea of comfort from an immortal become appealing.’
‘Three?’ said Sandreena. ‘You never said—’
‘And you never asked.’ He looked her in the eyes. ‘I thought of us as strangers who chanced to meet in a village with the improbable name of Yellow Mule, and we both sought a moment’s comfort for the body and the heart. I was a travelling mountebank and you were the serious young knight trying to do some great good in the world. I thought it but a passing thing, not what it turned out to be; I never meant to hurt you.’
‘You lied to me!’
‘I lie!’ he retorted. ‘That’s what charlatans do. We lie. We cheat. We act on our own best interest.’
‘Then what brings you here?’ she said, her eyes bright with emotion.
He let out a long sigh, leaning one arm on the step above him and his shoulders sagged. ‘Honestly, I don’t know. I look at the grey in Brandos’s hair and realize that if he doesn’t get killed in a brawl first, I will bury another person I love in ten, or twenty years. And then there’s Samantha…I’m over a hundred years your senior, Sandreena. I was an old man when your grandmother was a baby. For all I know, I might have bedded her. I need to be something more than a confidence trickster, a liar and cheat. I need to do something bigger than myself.’ He let his voice fall. ‘I thought I might stay with others like me for a while. Pug is older than I, as was Miranda.
‘When I saw her killed, I realized that no matter how long or short our lives are to be, we must do something with them.’ He shrugged and gave her a sad smile. ‘That’s when I decided to stay and help.’
She studied his face and remained silent then finally said, ‘Tell me about these demons.’
He realized that in some way she had just forgiven him, or at least agreed to forget how he wronged her. What that meant was unclear, but at least he could turn his attention to the matter at hand.
‘The demons that we conjure are from the outer precinct of hell, a region of sheer chaos and confusion, where life is a nonstop struggle for dominance.
‘Think of the Fifth Circle as a disc, and the rim the outer precincts, the closer you get to the centre the more organized it gets.’ He paused. ‘It’s hard to describe, because if I make it sound as if demon kind resembles us in any way, I’d be giving you a false comparison.
‘They have a high king, whose name is not known, but who reigns over other kings. The king we knew as Maarg has almost certainly gone, but his legend maintains a semblance of order to that outer precinct.
‘He may have been replaced by Dahun, the demon my brother and his mad followers seem to worship, or perhaps Dahun’s the ruler of a different region of hell.
‘There are a thousand more questions than answers, but two have come to the fore: why are the demons fighting among themselves, and how can some of them exist in this realm without magical protection?’
Sandreena said, ‘I thought the act of summoning gave them the protection they required?’
‘Yes, the circle of confinement is also a circle of protection and when they bow to our will, we protect them from succumbing to this environment. But what of those demons we didn’t summon?
‘Pug told me of the demon he faced, who replaced the Emerald Queen—’
Sandreena interrupted. ‘The Temple has long had dealings with demon possessions, Amirantha.’