Page 13 of Buzz Kill (Smoke & Mirrors Tavern #7)

Chapter thirteen

ALWIN

I woke with a start when someone approached and quickly covered Declan with a towel before pulling another over my lap. We’d fallen asleep in the steam room and only the pounding in my head and weakness in my limbs was a clue to how long we’d been in there.

Healing required the body to replenish itself, food and sleep were required, but I’d been distracted and failed to feed Declan before we fell asleep. The effects were still tolerable, telling me we’d only been asleep for a couple of hours, but they would continue to get worse the longer we waited.

I nudged Declan just as Rith appeared in the steam with my belongings. The demon’s eyes swept over the two of us and he muttered another admonishment, likely for falling asleep in this place. My attention returned to Declan and only now did I notice the marks all over his body. The bruises from his injuries were mostly healed and faded, but fresh fingerprints and bite marks marred his neck, shoulders, hips, and thighs. There was no question what we’d been doing and I quickly wrapped the towels fully around Declan before waking him.

Declan groaned and immediately clutched his head. “Ugh, shit. We forgot to eat.” He seemed more tired than in pain and his eyes blearily opened as he pushed himself up with a yawn. “Okay, point me to the kitchen. I’ll make us something.”

“Do you know how to cook?” I questioned.

His upbringing didn’t seem to necessitate such things, though he had been living on his own for several months at least.

He rubbed his eyes. “Technically? No. But how hard could it be?”

A servant demon appeared with a pail of water and cloths and I took it away before they could try washing us again. Declan snorted, finding it amusing until another demon appeared in the steam on his side and began tugging at his towel. I gripped his towel, holding it in place, but the demon didn’t let go and Declan ended up in the middle of a contest of strength. Had I not been weakened by the healing, it would have been no contest at all, but these little demons were actually much stronger than they appeared.

“I will do it,” I insisted.

These demons had likely washed Declan earlier, the same as they had tended to me. I hadn’t bothered to fight them then, but something had changed in the intervening hours and allowing them to touch him was no longer acceptable. There was no logic behind my actions, I couldn’t have explained myself even if we spoke the same language, but I refused to budge.

“Leave!” I finally demanded.

The demons were starting to understand that word, but the last time I’d used it was to kick the guards out of the village. They glanced worriedly at Rith and Declan finally spoke up, gently taking the washing cloths from the demon’s hands and giving them to me.

“Thank you, but we can handle this part. Can you guys get us food instead?” Declan patted his stomach and looked to Rith to translate.

The little demon and Declan had been communicating this way for days now and he immediately understood. He gave several orders to the others before they scurried off. Rith handed over my clothes and a long robe-like garment for Declan. My clothes had been laundered, but Declan’s were damaged and would likely need to be repaired or replaced.

Rith led us out of the steam room and back to the shower area I’d been in earlier. He opened the door to the bedroom beyond and gestured inside before leaving.

“You alright?” Declan asked when we were finally alone again. “Sorry, stupid question. You must be feeling pretty shitty by now.”

I reached for the water to clean him, but he’d already started taking care of it himself so I did the same.

“You as well. I apologize, I did not mean to fall asleep before feeding you.”

Declan waved me off. “I’m used to it.”

Indeed, he seemed to be handling the backlash better than I, which considering the extent of his injuries, should not have been the case.

When we were clean and dressed, Declan led the way into the bedroom where a feast was laid out on a table. The servants scurried off when they saw us approach, but Declan wrapped an arm around Rith’s shoulder to keep him there. When everyone else was gone, he pushed Rith down into one of the chairs and pulled up another from the corner of the room.

“You have some explaining to do, young man,” Declan said as he dug into the food. He passed a plate my way. “Eat. Put it off much longer and you won’t be able to stand.”

I took the seat next to Declan and filled my plate while he tried to communicate with the demon.

“So you seem to know this place pretty well, hm?”

Rith couldn’t have known what he was saying, but it seemed he was expecting a lecture. He seemed unsure of where he stood with us now that he’d used us to take down the former owner of this house. Declan placed some food in front of Rith and the demon looked up at him in surprise.

“Eat,” he told the demon as well.

Rith stared at Declan for a long moment. “Eat?” he repeated.

Declan laughed. “Yeah, eat. What’s the problem? You’ve been eating with us for days.”

The demon started eating and Declan gave him a moment before asking for the book they’d been drawing in previously. They communicated through pictures with Declan offering human words and Rith giving demon ones. Before long, the tow of them slowly started bridging the language barrier.

After most of the food was gone and pages of pictures had been drawn, Declan sighed. “I was hoping this demon had a library or some kind of information on magic items, but apparently he wasn’t very smart. The one move he used on everyone was effective, but it looks like it was the only magic he knew. You killed the strongest of the soldiers though, so Rith doesn’t think they’re as much of a threat for now. We should be able to stay here while we figure out what to do next.”

“Mm,” I agreed. There was no sense in leaving this place before we had to.

What we should do next was weighing heavily on both of us. Declan was quiet for a long moment before he finally held out a hand.

“Let me see the stone again.”

I retrieved the artifact from my pouch and handed it over. “It is still inactive.”

“Yeah, so time probably isn’t what it needs to recharge. Now that we’re in a place where it won’t draw attention, I’ll try to figure out how to make it work.”

That would likely require studying the original spell on the artifact and experimenting with the magic. Neither of which seemed like things Declan would normally be willing to do. Still, if we wanted to leave this world, there wasn’t much choice.

“Hey! Uh, Ghar, that was our name, right?” Declan called to a passing servant. “Do you guys have some kind of church or place of worship nearby? Like holy land? Wait, would it be called holy land in the demon world?”

He’d directed the last part of the question at me and I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter because he’s clearly not familiar with the word regardless.”

Declan looked back at the servant standing there with scrunched brows.

“Water?” the demon asked hopefully.

Over the past few weeks, the demons had slowly started picking up simple words from Declan and Rith, but some were better than others and based on this demon’s reaction, he couldn’t be expected to understand something like ‘holy land’.

Declan rubbed his forehead. “No, not water. Like a place to pray?” He pressed his hands together. “Praying?”

The gesture wasn’t one used in my world, and it likely meant nothing to the demon examining his hands either, but a second later, his face lit up in understanding.

“Food?”

“What? No, not food. Worship. Holy land.”

“Bed?”

This time the sorcerer just stared blankly at the demon.

“Shoes?”

“He’s just going through the list of every word he knows, isn’t he?”

“Yes.”

Declan sighed. “Can you just find Rith, please? Forget it. Isai! Can you come here please?”

Another passing demon slipped inside and sent Ghar on his way. She bowed to us as she approached, but Declan stopped her.

“I told you guys to stop doing that. Is there anywhere nearby that has a lot of natural energy?”

“Energy?” she questioned, repeating the word slowly.

“Yeah, like magic, power, you know.”

“Ah, magic.” She seemed to understand this word, but hesitated to respond.

Rith stepped into the room and immediately started asking questions. Isai answered, shooting Declan a worried glance as she did. Rith also shot the sorcerer an exasperated look before sending the other demon on her way.

“Hey, she didn’t answer my question yet!” Declan complained.

“Magic lands dangerous,” Rith answered. “Demons fight for power.”

He and Declan spent a lot of time together while working tirelessly on the artifact. Rith learned quite a bit of our language in only a few weeks while Declan and I picked up a few basic demon words needed to communicate with the servants.

“Oh.” Declan’s shoulders fell. “But Alwin can protect us.”

“No. We will die,” Rith insisted.

“How far away is it?”

“Dead can’t use magic.”

“I can if I can’t die,” Declan grumbled.

“Without a head?”

“I suppose I don’t want to know if that would break the curse,” Declan conceded. “And I really don’t want to find out what happens if it doesn’t.”

Satisfied with that response, Rith nodded. “Stop being stupid,” he instructed as he left.

“I really regret teaching him that word.”

“You believe spiritual power native to this land will recharge the artifact?” I asked.

“Not exactly. The artifact wasn’t created here so there’s really no reason to think it would need anything native to this world, but I figured it was worth a shot. I’ve tried all the basics — magic, blood, sunlight, moonlight, incantations, rituals, intent. Nothing. It only took power the first time, but presumably it was already charged and waiting to be activated.”

“Perhaps it was only intended to be used once.”

He turned the artifact over in his hands, the shimmer of his magic as he examined the weaving reflected in his eyes. “I don’t think so. If feels depleted, but the spell is still there. It’s insanely complicated, far more so than most magic I’ve seen, but if using it didn’t damage the spell then it should be able to be reactivated. I just have to figure out what it needs.”

“And if it did damage the spell?”

Declan sighed and closed his eyes. “Then I guess I’ll have to figure out how to patch it.”

When I said nothing, he stood and turned, half sitting on the table he’d claimed for his work.

“It’s my fault we ended up here and I will take responsibility for getting us back, even if it means using magic.”

“Perhaps we can find another way,” I found myself saying, though logically the artifact was the only way out.

Declan had deeply rooted trauma on this issue and while we did need to return home as soon as possible, I didn’t want to be another person forcing him to use magic.

Declan shook his head. “If there was another way out someone would have found it by now and unattached demons would be wandering around, but they’re not. We have an artifical gateway right here. It’s obviously our best bet for getting home. It’s fine. This isn’t the same as what my family was trying to force me to do. I’m doing this willingly. I will get you home to see your niece or nephew.”

Before I could respond, a blast of magic sounded outside the house and the servants and villagers yelled and ran.

“Again?” Declan complained.

Shortly after we’d taken over the village another demon faction had tried to take advantage of the situation and attacked. Luckily, they were not difficult to deal with and I took care of them rather quickly. We returned the bodies o the attackers to the demon who’d sent them and things had been quiet since then. However we were not idly waiting for the next attack. I’d been training the servants in and around the house to defend themselves and a glance out the window proved they’d taken their training seriously.

“That was Rith’s trap that went off,” Declan commented as he joined me at the window to get a look at our attackers. “Wait, aren’t they…?”

The former guards were attacking the house and this time they’d brought help. Three huge troll-like demons at least ten feet tall were bashing their way in with spiked clubs, stepping on the smallest villagers like ants while the former guards grinned gleefully at the wreckage.

“Mm,” I agreed, releasing the glamour on my armor and weapons. The ones who’d killed Declan dared to show their faces before me again. “They’ve returned to get what they deserve.”