Boots of Booty | ONC 2023

Part 11

26. Confrontation

Neither predator nor prey wasted energy on vocalization. The huffing of breath and the rapid footfalls comprised the entire soundscape palette. Séa huffed with exertion. The half-seen cellar passages flew by. From time to time, unknown grime kicked up by Tash splashed her face.

A staircase up appeared at their elbow, and they pelted up the stone steps. The glow of luminous fungus gave way to a yellow glow that might be sunlight filtering down from unseen windows on high. A dark humanoid shape ahead darted to one side and disappeared from view.

"He took one of those," panted Tash, "narrow passages."

"Are we catching up?"

The rogue darted after the fleeing figure. Séa banged into the small entrance, mashing her shoulder in the process. "Argh," she muttered. "Torugg, lend me speed. I'm too wide for this."

She soldiered on, though the demon and Tash receded with every step.

The flat passage became stairs up, then flattened again. It zigged and zagged around three corners. Séa pounded past a kind of alcove on her left, but then skidded to a halt. The blot in spacetime that was the demon had gone that way. With a humorless grin, the paladin reversed course. Fabric backed the alcove. When Séa put her hand upon it, it billowed outward and light spilled from around its edges.

She pushed her way around a tapestry into a richly furnished chamber. Carved and gilded tables dotted the marble floor. Fancy chairs and floor-standing candelabras provided tasteful counterpoint. Tapestries painted elegant stripes on the tall walls. Séa recognized the towering ceiling. She must be in the great hall of King Pharing, but behind the throne in a separate chamber.

The paladin gripped her improvised club anew as her divine sense rang alarms in her head. More demons than one stood near, eating holes in the light of the universe. Draperies to the left and to the right hung to the floor, but the left-hand one billowed and settled. Apparently, they were partitions and not walls. Séa stood in the great hall, then, tucked out of sight from the main audience chamber.

She tiptoed to the drapery edge and peeked.

Several light-consuming demons milled around Tash, who knelt as if meditating. Her saber rested upon her knees. The pacing figures dressed like men-at-arms and wore human skins. Their rugged faces exuded trustworthiness, carefully constructed by their incubus owners to do so. Driven by the logic of vanity, the incubi wore no helms. Their appealing faces must be seen to be adored.

Séa searched in vain for blood splashes around Tash. She knelt unharmed! The paladin inhaled with a quiver, then whispered, "Mighty Torugg, sustain me in my time of trial."

Like a snowstorm during harvest, a chill voice rang out. "There you are. Come to us, Séa." Come to us.

Sarophax and the circlet of subversion. Séa's stomach clenched. Her feet moved without her command and carried her past the part in the curtain. The throne dais occupied the far side, with the marble-tiled main floor beyond. The succubus stood beside the throne occupied by a hollow-eyed King Pharing. Besides Tash, Séa, and Pharing, only demons occupied the great hall.

"Endurer, sustain me," pleaded Séa as her feet carried her to stand among the cluster of disguised incubi.

"Where have you two been, I wonder?" Sarophax raised an eyebrow. Currently, the succubus outwardly resembled the middle-aged Ophelle. The disguise featured graying hair, stooped posture, and worry wrinkles. But the circlet gleamed across her forehead undisguised.

Tash's eyes flicked to meet Séa's. Her lips twitched into a fleeting, rakish smile, and her eyebrow raised and lowered suggestively. A moment later, she looked dull as a lump of clay again. The paladin's heart leapt in her chest.