Castle For Rent by John DeChancie

Author:John DeChancie [DeChancie, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-01-12T05:00:00+00:00

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

Trent honked angrily at a brave pedestrian, a man in a trench coat and wool cap, who had stepped out in front of the car. The man jumped back to the curb in the nick of time as Trent roared by. Incarnadine heard shouted obscenities dwindling in the car’s wake.

“How do you know?” Trent said.

“I don’t, for sure,” Incarnadine answered, “but I’m fairly sure she tried to have me killed, and that means she’s not dealing squarely with Deems. I don’t think Deems would go along with assassinating me.”

“Unless he is as desperate as Ferne said he was.”

“Possibly. But I don’t think Ferne wants to share power with anyone, let alone Deems, let alone me. She needs allies to take and hold the castle, and I think she thinks that only supernatural allies will do. She’s probably right. Alone, she’d have to face her subjects, to say nothing of the Guard. And there’s always the Guests as a wild card. And all of them are magicians, to varying degrees. That’s what makes Perilous a fun place and makes plotters toss and turn all night. I do myself, sometimes.”

“This all sounds complicated,” Trent said uneasily. “Why is she stringing Deems along? Why does she need him?”

“If she had simply summoned the Hosts of Hell to take over the castle, Deems would have thrown in with me to fight them off. So would Dorcas, and, I think, even you.”

Trent seemed to be grinning in spite of himself. “But I was stranded here, remember? Still am, as a matter of fact.”

“Bullshit, Trent. I never believed it for one minute.”

Trent laughed. “Okay, I never was good at keeping secrets.”

“You shouldn’t have shown off at dinner, when you let me see how you do your aging act. Obviously you’ve learned to adapt to this universe. How long did it take you to learn how to summon the gateway?”

“Oh, about five years, as I said. But once I could do if, I had no interest in going back to Perilous, or in living in any other universe but this one. I simply had settled down here and wasn’t about to move. I have friends here, you know. I’ve put down roots.”

Incarnadine nodded, looking out the window. Traffic thickened up even more as they reached the West Side.

“I still don’t quite understand it,” Trent said. “Okay, she wouldn’t have won any popularity contests by teaming up with a bunch of demons. But can any of us prevail against the Hosts of Hell, singly or combined?”

“I don’t know. The Hosts of Hell are a troublesome bunch.”

“That’s putting it mildly. If Dad feared anything at all, it was those guys. He warned us about them more than once.”

“Dad knew their power. It’s not for nothing that the strongest containment spell in the castle is the one blocking their aspect.” Incarnadine rubbed his dark beard. He was glad not to have to go about in Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

makeup all the time.

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