Fire Angels

Chapter 23 Part 2 Smazor

"Yes there is marvelous symmetry to it all," he cooed, bowing again. "It's gratifying to impress someone of your power, my Queen. For I must say, I admired how well you fought us. You are a great mage. And even though your last adversary was a pathetic worm of a creature, still to defeat a demon - that is something special."

Flatterer. Such courtliness always made me suspicious.

"You wound me, my queen," smiled the demon, urbanely.

"Then Bedazzer is not one of your number?" I asked.

So the Klementari had been right. He had been trying to prevent other demons from gaining control over me. It was well known that demons hated each other. They were beings of chaos and jealousy. This made the fact that there were five of them serving Darmen Stalker truly remarkable.

"Oh it is remarkable," said Smazor. "I am a remarkable demon. Few of us have the power to communicate with mortals at all. Most of us are so overwhelmed by gnawing hungers that we become nothing but great mindless blackness moving across the face of our world, pawing through the dirt for remnants of life. But I not only control my hunger, but have power over four other demons as well. They cling to my coat tales, for the morsels that fall from my lips. I am a King of Hell."

"I would like to see these other demons some time," I said.

The moment I spoke, I was angry at myself. Here I was, chatting over tea as if I was in the finest Salon in Gallia. I should be trying to think of ways to subvert Smazor and his minions away from Darmen Stalker, not asking to make their acquaintance.

"She is wondering how to get control of me," said Smazor.

"It was only a matter of time," said Stalker. He smiled silkily. "You haven't a hope, my dear Queen. Smazor knows you are no demon master. You'd use him and then send him away foodless into the waste. He is happy serving me."

The demon smiled fawningly at Stalker. "It is a pleasure to serve a clever and powerful master" he said.

I remembered Bedazzer again and how he hated his slavery and being reminded of it. Was Smazor so different from him? I could not help admiring Bedazzer's sulky surliness as compared to Smazor's fawning.

Smazor pulled himself up sharply.

"Very well," he said. "If that's how you're going to be, I shall take myself off." And suddenly the mirror was empty.

I almost smiled at the ridiculousness of it all; that the creature who had laid half of Moria waste could be so easily offended. Almost smiled. I did not really believe in his offence any more than I believed in his fawning. The only real feeling demons have is hunger, a gnawing bottomless hunger. Smazor was just pandering to Stalker's madness.

But why do that when he could have used it against him? Stalker's belief that he was powerful enough to be their king put him in a uniquely vulnerable position. He could easily be tricked into destroying himself for their pleasure. And yet he had survived, how long? Three years? Probably even longer than that.

"I have no illusions," said Stalker looking at the empty mirror. It was almost as if demon like he had read my mind. "I know the burdens of their hungers intimately. How could it be otherwise when we are one spirit?

I know they do not serve me of love. They are not naturally servile. They are too magnificent for that. They serve me because I feed them."

Yes it became clear now. That was why Smazor and his four demons served Darmen Stalker. He feed them his life force and the life force of others in return for their services. And they managed to keep their hungers enough in control not to upset this balance. Perhaps a bound demon that remained in his own world was less resentful of being a servant. At least he got to feed.