Chapter 143

Demons proved exceptionally difficult to kill. The dragons proved invaluable in that, but Pe Riyuro's worries were not diminished even a little bit. "Have we heard any word from the small expeditions?" He asked of his second in command.

"None, My Lord. No more have made it back, and most of our scouts have not returned alive." His second replied with a dreadful shake of his head. "The ones who have, all report dealing with small groups of demon probes… minor ones… but they are hard to kill."

Pe Riyuro wondered how long it had been since he last slept well. 'Before the demon appeared… but what has it been, a week? Two weeks? Who can say?'

More bizarre than the demons was the behavior of the dragons themselves. The concubines and children of the late dragon ruler, Olasird'arc. 'No snarled orders, just a desperate, fevered cooperation. Seeing their patriarch die must have shaken them badly.'

They had fled too far, too fast, and now the way in and out of the mountain was lost to them. The Demon Emperor's small number of minions had few creatures to rival a dragon, but it didn't matter as long as Jaldabaoth remained in easy reach and the demons could call for his aid at need.

"How many casualties?" Pe Riyuro asked while staring with a grim face down at the little lizard in the tiny cage.

"A hundred and twenty-seven." His second in command answered with his dark blue streaked fur shaking in the light breeze that now blew through the area.

"And did they stop the demon probe?" Pe Riyuro asked, his breath quickened and then stopped as quickly as it had increased while he waited for an answer he did not truly want.

"Yes, My Lord. We killed seven of them, the rest drew back, but again they seemed disinterested in really pressing the fight. If they had?" His second in command answered and his fur bristled with his shudder.

"I wonder if the dwarves are still alive?" Pe Riyuro said aloud, he looked away, wistful for a moment, recalling the time of relatively easy victories, the time of certainty when he believed the mountain would fall into his people's hands one day.

"There's no way to know, My Lord, the more distant scouts have reported the dwarven fortress on our side of the Great Rift is intact, so is the bridge. But we have no way to say what that means for the city, and our scouts have not been back that way in some time." The second in command looked with hungry eyes down at the caged lizard.

"What about food?" Pe Riyuro asked.

"We got a great deal out of the farms when the dragons warned us, but not everything, and we no longer have the space or time to replace what we've lost. But still, we're rationing, priority goes to the front lines for now. Sadly the demons help solve our food problem when they take captives…" The second in command snapped his jaw shut when Pe Riyuro glared at him.

Then the glare disappeared and Pe Riyuro lowered his eyes to the little lizard in its cage where it ran in frantic circles under their eyes.

"What are they taking prisoners for? What does the demon want? If it were me, then I would have sought servants, the dragons bound us to them, why wouldn't the Demon Emperor do the same? Are we food for them as the lizards here are for us?" Pe Riyuro expected no answer would come his way, and none did.

So Pe Riyuro looked down at the ram skin document again, and ignored his ration.

'Never ending petitions… but none of them are requests to fight the demons on the front line.' Pe Riyuro kept his grousing confined to the inside of his own skull, everybody wanted to fight when there was sure victory… but defeat? Who wants to fight a lost battle, especially one in which you at least 'seem' to win, but still end up feeling like you've lost?

'I'd face desertion if there were anywhere for anyone to actually 'go'.' Pe Riyuro clenched his claws over the tanned skin full of requests from various clans. Two thousand or so did actually try to make a run for it, attempting to find some way out of the mountain by going toward one of the old dwarven gates. A few sent out to bring them home saw demons tormenting the last of those numbers, and then withdrawing from the site of what became a bloody massacre which painted the gray rock red.

'It's like they want us to stay here… do they hate us like we hate dwarves? Why?!' Pe Riyuro tried to think of any reason why demons might have a special hatred for his race, and yet none came to mind.

'So many questions… and no answers to go with any of them.' He thought just as one of their numbers barged in.

The quagoa was one of the lighter furred members, his dark fur painted a shade of gray with a combination of ground up rock dust and mud to help hide him a little better. Simply put, he looked like he badly needed a bath.

He was breathing as if he'd run for hours, he collapsed at Pe Riyuro's feet as soon as he came near.

"My Lord! My Lord we have… we have something to see you!" The quagoa's brow-covered eyes were wide with existential horror that spoke volumes about his state of mind.

Moreover, Pe Riyuro heard the way it was said. 'Something? Not 'some' 'one'?' He blinked three times in rapid succession, then demanded, "Explain yourself!" And tossed the list of petitions aside.

"A… I have no words, two heads… quagoa and dwarf sharing a body… th-the thing… the abomination… I don't… but it comes from, ah, it says it came from the fallen dwarven Capital… that it was personally with the Demon Emperor Jaldabaoth and has words that might help us… things it overheard." The runner shivered with mute horror, whatever he'd seen, it had been more than the young runner was prepared to cope with.

"I see… how did it escape?" Pe Riyuro's eyes narrowed with suspicion.

"I-I don't know… b-but My Lord… the quagoa half… it was m-my brother…" The scout stiffened from the tip of his nose to the tip of his toes.

Pe Riyuro gave a low growl of pity, "Go, rest, send… whatever this is, in. If what you say is true then…" He almost promised to help, but set the likely futile promise aside.

"I am sorry." He said with sincerity, and the scout shivered again and withdrew.

It took supreme effort not to vomit when the wretched creature was brought within. One half dwarven body, one half quagoa body, fused together through both common medical arts and magic, both halves had clearly nearly starved, scrapes and cuts were packed with mud and chewed leaves meant to pack injury points. They both had the start of hideous scarring around open parts of their cheeks that had been touched by molten metal. Their arms and fingers showed numerous small injuries or breaks. The dwarf, far from the robust stature normally associated with them, had a pale pallor associated with malnutrition.

Worse, each one was missing an eye as well as the vast majority of the inner leg, the stumps bound inextricably forever.

The stomach of the shared body growled with vigorous hunger when the quagoa head caught sight of the lizard.

Pe Riyuro broke the silence, and did his best not to stare at the ruined version of two beings, though he also marveled that they, or it survived to reach him at all. "You have information for me?" He asked and taking up the box with the lizard inside, he extended it to the quagoan arm.

The lizard was flung into the open maw and wolfed down, but while that was happening, it was the dwarf side which answered.

"Aye… ah do, we do… an here's all we know…"

Pe Riyuro listened with horror as he found the answer to the most pressing of questions, and learned the answer was worse than he ever imagined.

'I need help.' He realized, and asked himself the all important follow up question, 'How do I get it?'