James turned to confront the demon, which had finished tearing apart the assassin who had lain upon its horns. Body parts littered the room and the creature bellowed in rage as it confronted James and his companions.
“What do we do?” asked Jonathan Means, shaking now that he realized the nature of the monster they faced.
“It cannot cross out of that space,” said Jazhara, “unless he who summoned it gives leave. But it will remain there for a long time unless we banish it or kill it.”
“Those things are hard to kill,” said James. “I know.”
Jazhara turned to the guardsman. “Send word to the palace. Summon Father Belson and tell him we have a demon to banish.”
The guardsman glanced at James, who nodded.
James said, “Let us back out of here and wait for the good father to show up.”
Time seemed to drag as they waited for the arrival of Prince Arutha’s religious advisor. James stood just the other side of the door, watching the evil creature as it raged and glared at him, full of malevolence. Several times it feigned an attack, but always it pulled up at the mystic barrier.
“What’s this nonsense about a demon?” shouted a voice from above.
James turned to see Father Belson appear. The slender, black-bearded cleric arrived in a hurry, minus his usual purple and scarlet robes. Instead he wore a woolen nightshirt over which a heavy cloak had been thrown. “This idiot,” he said, pointing back at the guard, “wouldn’t even grant me leave to dress - “ Then he glanced past James and caught sight of the demon. “Oh, my,” he said softly.
“I’ll get out of the way and let you go to work, Father,” James said.
“Go to work?” Father Belson replied, blinking in confusion. “Work doing what?”
“Getting rid of the demon. That’s why we summoned you.”
“Get rid of the demon? I can’t do that,” said the priest of Prandur in horror.
James blinked like an owl caught in a sudden light. “You cant?
“Demons are creatures of the lower realms, and as such often consume fire energy. My service to the Lord of the Flames prevents me from having any skills with the sorts of magic that can possibly harm the creature.” Looking again at the demon, the priest added softly, “Best I can do is irritate him, and at worst make him stronger.”
“What about exorcism?” asked Jazhara.
Glancing at the Keshian magician, the priest said, “That’s not something my temple does. You’d have to find a priest of Sung, and a powerful one at that, or an Ishapian.”
James sighed. He turned to the guard who had originally brought Father Belson and said, “Hurry to the Temple of Ishap and tell the High Priest we request the services of one who can banish a demon — and quickly. Use the Prince’s name. Go.”
The guardsman saluted. “Squire.” He turned and hurried off.
To Father Belson, James said, “Sorry to have awakened you.”
Not taking his eyes off the creature, the priest said, “Oh, I wouldn’t have missed this for anything.”
“Good,” said James. “Then keep an eye on the thing just in case, while I go interview a prisoner.”
James returned to the upper room. Pete was sitting in a chair with a guard at his side. James said, “Now, before we were so rudely interrupted . . .”
Pete looked close to panic. “I tell you, Squire, I don’t know nothin’. Just some lads throwin’ gold around for me to know nothin’. So I looks the other way when they want to use the down-below, and the pass-me-through to the sewers. You know how it is.”
James nodded. He knew all too well how it was. To the guardsman he said, “Take him to the palace. Lock him in the dungeon, and we’ll see what else he knows at our leisure.”
The guard grabbed Pete roughly under the arm and said, “Come with me, little man.”
The peg-legged former sailor squawked at being manhandled, but went along peacefully.
It took almost an hour for the Ishapians to arrive, a gray-haired priest of some significant rank and two armed warrior monks. Once James acquainted them with the situation below they agreed it had been a wise move to summon them.
They hurried down the steps to the basement and the Ishapian priest said to Father Belson, “You may depart now, Servant of Prandur.”
Belson bowed slightly. “As you wish.”
As he passed, James said, “You’re leaving?”
With a wry smile, the priest said, “I know when I’m not wanted.”
James was puzzled. There was a great deal about the politics of the Kingdom that James had come to understand during his tenure at Arutha’s court, but the relationships among the temples was a complex knot of intrigues he had scarcely been aware of before then, and one he had had little reason to investigate.
The priest of Ishap turned to James and said, “How did this come to be?”
“That man,” James said, pointing at the dead magician lying on the floor near the far wall. “He summoned the creature.”
The priest looked across the room, then observed, “If he were alive it would be easier to return the creature to the plane of hell from which it was summoned.”