The Crystal Mountain (The Empryean Odyssey) by Thomas M. Reid

Author:Thomas M. Reid [Reid, Thomas M.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780786955848
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Publishing
Published: 2010-01-14T00:00:00+00:00

Vhok’s steps felt light and easy as he walked through the tunnels of the demonic stronghold. That was too easy, he thought. Tauran finally got a taste of his own rules, and he has found them wanting. The fool.

The only part that dismayed him was Aliisza. Even too feeble to draw on her magic, she had tried to stop him. She had made her choice. She’s no longer the one I loved, he told himself. But I will miss her.

You will find another consort, Kaanyr Vhok. Right now, remember that you are free. You’re free!

Vhok’s stride was rather jaunty as he turned a corner and entered the great chamber where the marilith held court before, when he and Aliisza had come before her. She was there, surrounded by her minions. Two of the large, ram-headed fiends guarded the doorway, and when they spotted him approaching, they blocked his route with their wicked-looking polearms.

“I must speak with Vhissilka,” Vhok said. “It concerns a means of returning us all to the Abyss.”

“You will wait,” one of the two guards said before he bounded off to inform the marilith. The other remained there, watching Vhok closely. He wondered if it was one of the survivors he had commanded earlier. He struck a pose of disdainful boredom and waited.

The guard returned, but the hyena-headed demon with the snake protruding from his neck, Grekzith by name, accompanied the lowly demon. The guard resumed its position on one side of the door, while Grekzith stood before Vhok and folded his arms across his chest, matching the cambion’s haughty stare.

“My mistress is busy,” he said. “Go away.”

Vhok chuckled. “Vhissilka is not too busy to hear what I have to say. Go tell her I’ve found a way to get her back to her beloved Abyss. And tell her that circumstances have changed. She can have the angel. I have all the information I need from him.”

The demon glared at Vhok. “I will also ask Vhissilka for permission to disembowel you for your impertinence,” he said. He turned and stalked back to the marilith.

Vhok watched the exchange between demons carefully. As the molydeus whispered in her ear, the marilith’s eyebrows shot up. She uttered some quick command and gestured for the other fiend to hurry away. By the molydeus’s body language, Vhok could tell he was not happy.

Good, Vhok thought. The quicker he learns not to try me, the better.

The red-skinned demon stormed past Vhok with barely a glance. He exited the chamber and disappeared. Vhissilka gestured for Vhok to join her.

When the cambion reached the snake-bodied demon’s side, she said, “You have found a way to return my army and me home?”

“Yes. I will set out immediately. I will locate a portal leading back to the Abyss from the Astral Plane. Once I have found such a pathway, I will guide you and your army through it.”

The marilith snorted. “You will simply depart and never return,” she said, waving one of her several arms in dismissal. “I am no fool, cambion.

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