Chapter 26
On the whole, my life had taken a drastic turn. It was up in the air if it was for the better. For over a hundred years I had lived alone, unmarried. I was my own boss, worked when I wanted to, and in general had few responsibilities.
Now I was the Duke of a large city, and an even larger county! I was married with a child on the way. I had a wife who was determined to endanger herself, and the baby. Could life get any better? True, I was enjoying being married... mostly.
I guess all married couples went through this, but not on this level or scale! I was almost sure that this was at the max-end of the unusual. According to a message sent me via courier from my sister, my wife and I would be departing for the 'Gate of Demons', as it had become known.
My wife was off studying spells in the library provided by Pejoru, the God of magic, and her family's patron God. I had been wondering about my last trip into the land of demons. I had seen no souls being tortured. If they had been there, they were in a different area. Still, it was nothing like the 'hell' described by the bible, or Dante's Inferno.
Of course, these demons might not be the demons of the bible. Actually, you could drive yourself crazy thinking this through! It was like a never ending loop. Once you're caught up in it, you keep thinking: ok, if this is a demon, then shouldn't he/she/it, be/act this specific way? See what I mean? Nothing is as black and white as when you were a child.
I looked over everything I could find in the palace library about demons, but the "pickin's" were slim. Vostich had a couple books on them, but they were mostly written by people who heard it from a guy who knew someone... well, you get the idea. He did have one old volume that was informative, but hard to believe.
While it dealt with demons, the demons it talked of were the demons born to this world, long ago. After reading that book, it left me cold and scared witless. The things that were attributed to the demons back then, were of such a horrendous nature that I still have nightmares!
I had tried to convince my wife over and over to stay behind, but no luck. I had her read this book, but even that did not convince her. What was it about woman that seemed contrary to logic? I guess it was that age old war between men and woman, the battle of the sexes.
Still, she was powerful, and getting more powerful by the day. She diligently studied her craft, and had a good memory for spells. I wished she would stay behind, but there was no stopping someone who thought they were right. History is full of such people, and right or wrong, they set out to do what they would do.
The young are very idealistic and their world view is usually very simplistic. The world is divided into right and wrong, with no shades of gray. Unfortunately, as you age, you become more sophisticated and you start to think and complicate things. Maybe the young have it right, after all.
I went up to the roof of the palace, and changed to my dragon form. I did not assume my full dragon size, though. It was a chilly morning, so flying would be difficult at best. I launched myself into the air, and pumped my wings furiously, trying to gain height.
Maybe this was a mistake. Ever so slowly, I gained altitude, but it was hard going at first. I reached an altitude that gave me time to soar and rest my wings. Damn! I had always thought flying would be a joy. While it was, it was also hard work at times. Still, it was worth it, though.
I soared through the air, looking with my enhanced dragon sight at everything below me. I guess I had been flying for about 20 minutes, when I noticed a very large hawk circling me. I gave it a cursory look with my mage sight, and it glowed with power!
It was also larger... much larger than a hawk should be! I was immediately suspicious. I mean, come on! Hawks are not that big, nor do they glow with power like this one was. I was about to send a thought its way, when it folded its wings and dove at me!
I had thought I recognized the glow of power, but the dive drove all thoughts of anything except dodging, out of my mind. I dropped one wing, and started a dive, the hawk plummeted past me, missing by several feet.
It opened its wings with a snap, rolled, and started climbing. I was on its tail. I pumped furiously, but it continued to pull away. Hawks were much lighter and more maneuverable than dragons.
So we dodged and dove and turned through the sky. I was getting angrier by the minute. I didn't know this hawk, and it was playing childish games which I found annoying. I sent an angry thought its way, but got nothing in return. Hawks just did not mess with dragons for god's sake!
I let out a roar, which seemed to startle it, but it redoubled the dives on me. I simmered and then started getting to my boiling point. While I hated killing indiscriminately, this hawk was going to be toast.
I inhaled, zeroed in on the hawk, and sent out a jet of flame. Missed! It dodged and started to dive towards the ground. I followed it, not flaming it, but giving it notice that I was seriously annoyed.
It finally landed on the ground, and started to shimmer. When the shimmering was done, my wife stood there, looking up at me with wide eyes! I started at what I almost did! I landed close to her, and changed back into my human form.
"Are you crazy!?" we both said simultaneously.
"I thought I would surprise you!" Mariel exclaimed with an injured look at me.
"Well, you did! I almost killed you! What were you thinking?" I yelled at her.
"I was thinking I would show you that I could do transformations! How did I know you were going to try to kill me!" She exclaimed indignantly.
"First, you could have told me you could do transformations! Second, you were diving on me, what was I supposed to think? What would you do if some strange person or thing was attacking you?" I asked in a more reasonable tone of voice.
Mariel colored a nice pink red. "Well, you could have at least let me know you were angry with me doing that. I was just having fun. I can see now how it looked, though. I didn't think, sorry," she said in a little voice.
I went over to her and hugged her. We were going to have to have a long talk about things like this. I informed her there were protocols for this kind of thing. I explained that transforming was not something to be used for playtime. I then asked when and how she had learned to transform.
"It was when I was in the library, studying spells. Pejoru came to me and showed me how to do transformations. I wanted to surprise you. I guess I went about it the wrong way. Sorry," she said contritely.
We stood there in the fields outside the city of Landkur proper, and talked. It was late summer, and a lot of the crops had been taken in already. I still wanted to introduce a few tractors with cultivating equipment sometime soon. It would improve crop production tremendously and give my people an edge during bad times.
"When we go to the demon's land, is it as dark and dreary as you said it was?" She asked hesitantly.
"Yes. I can't begin to tell you how it seems. You would be doing yourself and me a favor, if you changed your mind and stayed behind," I told her.
"Don't start that. I am going, and that's that," she said with finality,
I sighed. "Well, you can't blame me for trying. I know we have discussed this, but the danger to you, and to our unborn child, is real," I finished grimly.
She stood almost face to face with me, and stroked my right cheek.
"I know all the reason for staying behind. I feel the need to go, though. I can't explain it any better than that," she said softly.
I nodded and we started walking towards the city. We were only about a mile and a half from it, and while my wife might be able to transform into a hawk and fly away, I was grounded as far as my dragon form was concerned. I really needed height, or a strong updraft to get into the sky.
So my wife decided to walk with me back to the city. We held hands and talked. We avoided the upcoming move to the land of demons. I asked her about Trayla, and she said that Trayla had at first wanted to go, but instead was going to visit relatives out in the country for a few months.
I smiled. Trayla was a little minx. She was a good companion to my wife, though. Trayla's mother had settled in with the household staff of the palace, and was doing well. All in all, the situation with Trayla and her mother had worked out well.
We walked slowly, and I think we resolved several of our problems of the last few weeks. Well, almost. I still did not want her to go with me, and she was still adamant that she would come.
As we entered the gates of the city, I was recognized by the guard. He immediately offered to get horses for us to use so we could ride back to the palace. I told him that was not necessary as we could teleport there, if and when we wanted to.
We continued to stroll through the city, trailing behind us were two guards who were thrust upon us by the commander of the gate guard. I agreed, but told them to stay well back unless we called them or the situation called for a response from the guards. They agreed.
We spent a few hours walking through the city, making notes on what to do with certain things that did not meet with our approval. I was happy with most of what I saw, however. The city had really shaped up since I started putting money into it, and got rid of a lot of the graft that had been endemic.
"Mariel? When you're sitting in judgment, how does that make you feel?" I asked her curiously.
"Well, at first I was nervous. Then I was worried about judging wrong. The people who set up the cases for the city know what they are doing, and that spell you put in place is really useful.
"Still, the spell does not know if a person is relating what he thinks is the truth, or what is the literal truth! It took me a few days to realize that the spell was lacking that way. But overall, I am happy as high judge," she said with a smile.
I nodded. I had meant to try to adjust that spell, but it was serving its purpose. We got to the main square of the city, and I decided I had had enough of this impromptu walk through. I grabbed my wife, concentrated for a moment, and teleported to our apartment in the palace.
As soon as we arrived, people descended on us with demands on our time. Our absence had been noted. I sighed.
"We should have told someone we would be gone," I said to my wife as we were being badgered by secretaries and servants.
Edited by TeNderLoin