Kensington came to his rescue. “I’ll need to question the demon as well so I have some idea of the teleporting conditions. You’re welcome to join us, but I would have thought that as Alastair’s mentor, you would wish to ensure his safety from such a ferocious beast.” He gestured down at the urco, who was now leaning against Zach’s leg, looking up at him with adoring eyes and soaking his pants with his drool.
Cavendish snorted at this, but then tried to disguise it as a cough when Tremblay turned to give him a withering look.
“Very well,” Tremblay gave in, not looking at all happy about it.
“Stay here,” Zach told the urco again, then he and Kensington crossed the empty square towards the inn. They picked their way over thesplintered remains of the door towards the far corner where several barrels were resting.
The demon hiding there was relatively humanoid, with short, stubby horns, and hooved feet. They were quivering in fear, their face hidden in their hands.
“Hello, there,” Zach said gently.
The demon screamed, pushed backwards, hit the wall, rebounded against the barrel, and sent it crashing to the ground. “I don’t want to die!” they wailed, flailing their arms wildly in front of them.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Zach tried to assure them. “We’re not going to hurt you.”
“You’re going to feed me to your pet urco!” the demon cried, trying their best to scramble away from Zach.
“We just want to ask a few questions,” Kensington said. “Then you can go. We promise no harm will come to you.”
“I don’t want to be eaten!” the demon howled, blue tears pouring down their cheeks.
Zach dipped into his magic and reached out, grasping the demon’s shoulder. He whispered, “pax amice1,” and the demon immediately slumped as a wave of calm washed over them. “Feeling better?”
They took a deep breath. “Uh-huh,” the demon said.
“We’re looking for our friend,” Zach explained. “I’m hoping you might have seen him.” Now was the tricky part. Zach had no way of knowing what sort of glamour Drew would have used, or if he’d been able to do a glamour at all. He’d never done one before, and as easy as they were once you knew how, there was a chance Drew wouldn’t have been able to figure it out. If Zach went around asking about ahuman, he was going to draw way too much attention to themselves. So he took a chance. He was stillholding onto the demon’s shoulder, and he took the essence of Drew’s aura and projected it at the demon, asking, “Did you see my friend?” at the same time.
The demon’s eyes glazed over, and then they nodded. “Oh, he was at the inn! He taught me a dance.Eyyyy Macarena!” the demon sang.
One of Kensington’s eyebrows shot up at this, and he mouthed, “Drew was dancing?” But he didn’t interrupt.
“Do you know where he went?” Zach asked, trying to not let his mind run away with guesses and deductions.
The demon looked fearful once more. “He and his friend were taken,” they whispered.
“Taken?” Zach’s stomach roiled with worry. “Taken by whom?”
The demon’s eyes darted around the square, searching for danger. Eventually, they leaned in close and said quietly, “The Shadow Blades took him.”
Zach’s blood ran cold. And then the rest of what the demon said registered. “Wait, what do you mean by his friend? Who was with him?”
“Are you sure it was this Andras fellow?” Kensington asked Zach once they’d collected Cavendish, Tremblay, and the urco and were making their way back out of the settlement.
“He was clearly glamoured, but the description of his behaviour fits,” Zach said. He felt an odd mixture of relief for Drew having reunited with a semi-friendly face and also anxiety for Drew getting caught up in Andras’s trouble.
“So Drew is with another demon?” Cavendish asked, trying to get up to speed. Zach hadn’t been in the mood to go into details, needing to get outof town as fast as possible so they could start teleporting towards Lucifer’s palace.
Zach nodded his confirmation.
“And who exactlyisthis Andras fellow? I assume you know him from . . .” Cavendish waved his hand around awkwardly. “You know, yourstayhere.”
He couldn’t help but snicker. “You make it sound like a vacation. I can just picture my review on TripAdvisor now. ‘Very unwelcoming, terrible climate, not as advertised. One star, would not recommend.’”
Cavendish blushed and stammered, “Sorry, I uh, wasn’t sure how you describe it.”
Zach felt a little bad for being snarky with the kid and offered him a kind smile. “It’s okay. No offense taken. Andras is someone I knew while I was here. We ran into him yesterday—no, the day before. Fucked if I know. I’m getting the days mixed up now. Anyway, when I was here with Drew.”
“Can he be trusted?”
