The Demons of Rome

XXVI - The Escape Plan

Iatus and Max glanced between the pile of ash and the cat girl.

"What do we do now?" Max asked, looking at the crowd of soldiers and magi who had gathered around the square.

Iatus didn't have an answer, but he was glad to see that the others were equally dumbfounded.

"Just glare at them and walk out, like you just did that yourself, usually works for me..." said a voice at their feet.

Iatus looked down and saw that the voice came from a particularly bedraggled sparrow. It had two black eyes, a chipped beak, a bent wing, a disfigured leg and no feathers on half its back. From somewhere he had found a wooden crutch and was hobbling along on it.

"You look awful Aelith!" Max said, shocked by the bird's appearance.

"Oh, I'm sorry to disappoint you, your eminence, next time a master mage tries to kill us I'll let you handle it."

"Aelith, be nice," Iatus scolded.

"Brat," Aelith scowled at Max, "Iatus, do as I say, walk as if you're a God and they'll part before you."

Iatus looked at Max, shrugged and started to walk towards what he hoped was the exit.

Illiria sniffed and wiped her eyes with her sleeve, "Wait for me guys!"

She bounded up to their side and matched their pace. She came up to Iatus' shoulder in height and he felt oddly protective over her, even though she was far more powerful than anyone he had ever met.

"Where are we going now?" she asked.

"Home," Iatus replied, although he had no idea which way that was, or even if he would be welcome back.

"Oh, okay," she mewed and wiped her eyes again.

They approached the line of people, Iatus steeled his courage and kept his pace. The people looked at each other nervously.

"S...s...stop... right there!" stuttered one man, "You cannot leave!"

Iatus' stomach churned but he kept his nerve, "And why not?"

"I... We... Won't let you!" the man screeched nervously.

"You think you can stop us?" Iatus replied calmly.

"It is my duty to try!"

Damn it.

"Well, it was worth a try," Aelith said solemnly.

"So much for Aelith the wise," Iatus said, groaning.

"Will you shut up about that, I've managed to keep you alive so far! Not many spirits could have done that I assure you!"

"The only contribution you have ever made to my safety is to leave me in a tent to be tortured and killed! How is that keeping me alive?"

Aelith scowled, then winced and draped a wing over his cracked beak.

"Dismiss you're demons at once!" the man continued.

"Please get out of my way, I've had a very trying day," Iatus said, sighing.

"Dismiss your demons! Now!" the man insisted.

"Damn," Iatus groaned and said Fiuren's command word.

A hole in the air appeared and the golem stepped out. The tiredness was getting to Iatus, despite Illiria's healing, and his head span from what should have been a minor event. The golem's sheer size and metal appearance should have terrified the onlookers into fleeing for their lives, except the hole in question opened horizontally, depositing poor Fiuren in a heap on the floor, evoking confusion rather than the intended terror.