Miranda took that to mean something significant, but without a context she had no idea what it meant. But being impatient to get on with the task at hand, she ignored the comment.
‘The demons of the Fifth Circle aren’t quite as alien as that. A particularly civilized one may wander in here from time to time, and as long as he doesn’t try to eat the other patrons, John will put up with his business.’
‘What has this to do with us?’ asked Macros.
‘For a sorcerer of wisdom and power you tend to the impatient, don’t you?’ asked Mustafa. He held up his hand as Macros began to protest. ‘Silence. All will be made clear.
‘The demons live on life. Much as you do, by eating plants or animals, they eat flesh and life. What you call life, mind, or spirit, is like drink to them. Flesh builds their bodies, much as it does yours or mine, but spirit builds their powers, and their cunning.
‘An ancient demon has devoured many enemies and will keep captured souls against the need to consume them later.’
‘I don’t understand,’ said Miranda.
‘Demons are like . . . sharks. Do you have sharks on Midkemia?’
‘Yes,’ said Miranda.
‘They swim in bunches, but for reasons unknown they will turn on one of their own, tearing him apart. If they enter a feeding frenzy, one shark may be eaten by another while it is in turn eating a third. Demons can be like that.
‘They eat one another when there is no other source of spirit and flesh. When they find their way into a world on a higher plane, they pillage it, glutting themselves on flesh and spirit. As they steal spirit, or mind, they grow more cunning, but if they lack that new source, they become stupid. So the more powerful demons need more minds to keep from getting stupid.’
‘I think I understand,’ said Macros.
‘Yes,’ said Miranda. ‘The demon who hurt Pug was betraying his master so he could feed unopposed in our world!’
Mustafa said, ‘That is likely. They do not possess what we would call a strong sense of loyalty.’
‘Thank you,’ said Miranda, starting to leave.
‘Wait, there’s more.’
‘What?’ asked Macros.
‘If you trap the demons between their own realm, where they can endure without needing to feed, and Midkemia, they will eventually destroy all life on Shila. Then they will begin feeding on one another.’
‘Do we care?’ asked Macros.
‘Not for the demons. Eventually there will be one demon left alive, probably their King Maarg if he’s come through, or Tugor, his captain. And without a source of food, he’ll weaken, and eventually die. But before he becomes a starving, stupid demon, he’s going to be a very angry, very powerful demon.’
‘Which means . . . ?’ asked Miranda.
‘Which means, just make sure you lock the door behind you when you leave.’
Miranda blinked, then started to laugh. Rising, she said, ‘We’ll do that.’
‘Not only the one into Midkemia; bar the door into the Hall when you return. An enraged demon king loose in the Hall would be most unpleasant.’
‘I’ll remember that.’
‘What about my payment?’ Mustafa asked as he stood.
Miranda smiled and there was an evil cast to her lips as she said, ‘I’ll tell you on the way back.’
Mustafa sat down as they left his little office and said, ‘Why am I always such a fool for a good-looking woman?’ He pounded the table. ‘Get the money first!’
SEVENTEEN - Destruction
Erik swore.
‘Yes, sir,’ said Sergeant Harper. ‘That’s how I would have put it.’
The message was from Greylock, and Erik now understood why the attacks throughout the previous two days had been so intermittent. The attackers had filtered through the woods and were now attacking Greylock’s defenses, a half-day’s ride to the east. Greylock’s message was calm, and he indicated he was having little trouble with the attackers, but stated his concern for the refugees, who were probably being preyed upon along the route of their retreat.
Erik’s men were roughly organized in a camp at the moment the message arrived. The flow of people fleeing the city was down to a trickle. Erik had paused to talk to a few, but none of them could offer anything remotely like intelligence; they were too frightened, had no idea what they had seen, and were too concerned with escaping a city on the verge of being sacked.
One man was still slightly wet from having swum out through an underground street that he had known since he was a boy, his pitiful belongings in a pack on his back. He only knew that a major portion of the city was afire.