If Kaspar was impatient to get to the point, he didn’t show it, merely saying, ‘Go on.’
‘None of us could read, we came to that later. We were taught magic. All three of us had inherited some of her gifts, though they manifested in different ways.
‘We were all practitioners of the dark arts, for my mother was a woman of dark secrets. I suspect her gifts came at a price, perhaps she made a pact with dark powers, but I can only speculate now.
‘As a child, I could sense presences, things I could not see, and I longed to call them to me. Nalnar was the first to answer, and while he is not overtly malicious, he has no natural sense of constraint. He injured me severely before I could subdue him. Once I bent him to my service, he became a lifelong companion. I can now summon him with a single word, and his obedience to me is absolute. Of all those I have summoned from the demon realm he is my most reliable servant.’
‘You have others?’ asked Kaspar.
‘Yes,’ said Amirantha. ‘Several, most of whom are fully controllable.’
‘Most?’
‘There are a few I have only lately come to dominate, upon whom I would not rely,’ said the Warlock, shifting his weight in his chair, uneasy about discussing his craft with a stranger.
Brandos raised his eyebrows and in a gently mocking tone said, ‘They tend to try and bite off your head until you get to know them better.’
Kaspar was silent a moment, then said, ‘This is beyond me. There are other people with whom I would have you speak, but until then, I will hear the rest of your tale.’
Amirantha let out his breath slowly, uncertain what to say next, then shrugged and said, ‘It’s difficult to know how to explain. We were left to our own devices much of the time; mother was a little mad, I’m certain, but she was also a woman of remarkable gifts.
‘There were three of us; I was the youngest, as I have said. Perhaps her madness was passed along to my eldest brother for he was . . . different. At an early age he became obsessed with death, or more precisely, the moment of death, when life flees, and was fascinated by the meaning of that transition. He would often kill things just to watch them die.
‘Our middle brother wasn’t as mad as the eldest of us, but that didn’t make him sane. He had his own madness: it was rage. He was born angry and he stayed angry. We used to fight all the time, for he was too frightened to challenge our elder brother. So I became the target of all his ire. Only my mother prevented him from severely injuring me several times.
‘Ironically his beatings are why I became a Warlock of Demons. One day as my brother was administering a thrashing I called to Nalnar to come and help me, and he appeared. He’s small, but he can be very nasty and has enough flame magic to burn down a house if he’s of a mind to. He drove my brother away and left him with a nasty set of scars. That’s when Belasco’s anger turned to cold hatred.
‘He’s been trying to kill me ever since.’
‘And other people think they have family problems,’ Kaspar said dryly.
Amirantha studied the General for a long moment, then smiled. ‘It does appear absurd when narrated, doesn’t it?’
‘Somewhat, but then I have seen many things in the last twenty years that I would have once scoffed at.
‘Still,’ added Kaspar, ‘you haven’t explained why your family difficulties concern the Kingdom of Muboya.’
‘It’s difficult to explain in a short time—’
‘Oh, take all the time you need,’ said Kaspar, as he glanced through the doorway where his guards stood ready to answer his call. ‘Even after all the trouble you’ve caused to gain my attention, after what I’ve heard it would be foolish of me not to give it to you. After all, if you don’t provide a compelling enough reason for unleashing your odd little friend in my offices, you’ll have ample time to contemplate your folly chained to the wall of my king’s dungeon.
‘So, please continue,’ said Kaspar agreeably. Amirantha and Brandos exchanged glances, but said nothing. Then the Warlock said, ‘After the fight, when Nalnar scared my brother, we spent as much time apart from one another as we could, especially when we reached a certain age.
‘I spent a great deal of time in some caves near our hut, calling up Nalnar and learning as much as I could from him about the demon realm. It took a great deal of luck, frankly. I almost got killed a number of times until I began to puzzle out the creatures, how they respond to being in our realm, what drives them.’
‘This is all very interesting,’ said Kaspar. ‘Go on.’