21 The Darkness Within IV (1/2)
With no reason to hang around the magic-eater's lair, we returned to the central chamber. Deprived of our only light source, we were forced to feel our way through the darkness. Fortunately, the workshop beyond was lit. We were standing around within, talking about what to do next, when we heard someone clear their throat. I jumped, hand going to my sword while Elmidath didn't move a muscle. An elderly man stood before us, bald with wrinkled purple skin and a single white horn. He frowned at us. ”What are you doing in here?”
The young Demon Lord stepped forward. ”I am Elmidath, daughter of Orshen Sarinknell. I take it you knew him?”
His frown faded while his brow shot up. ”You're little Elmidath? You've grown so much I hardly recognise you.”
Elmidath took a step back. ”I'm not sure what you mean, we've never met before.”
”We've met a couple of times but you must have been too young to remember.” He sounded a little sad that Elmidath had forgotten him. ”My condolences for your father's disappearance. I was shocked when I heard the news.”
Elmidath's lip curled in distaste. ”Disappearance? My father is dead.”
”Ah, of course. My mistake.” Despite his words, I didn't get the impression he truly thought he was wrong, but that hardly seemed important right now. ”Now, what are you doing down here? This is not a safe place to wander.”
It would have been nice if someone had told us that earlier, perhaps with a sign. Well, there was no point being coy about our objective here. None of the demons I'd met had been shy about things like this. ”We're trying to find a way to kill her uncle, who's taken over her father's former position.”
The old demon turned to me. ”And who might you be?”
”Cathal Moore, bound servant of Lady Sariknell. She summoned me here a few days ago from another world.” It still sounded ridiculous to me, but no one seemed to bat an eye about me being from another world.
”I see.” He extended his hand toward me and we shook. ”Tagath Molgrin, servant of the late Lord Sarinknell.”
Elmidath sniffed. ”And what is it you did for my father?”
”Oh, a great of things.” Tagath rotated his wrist in a circular motion. ”Building various contraptions, for the most part. Much as I'd love to speak more of my work, you still haven't answered my initial question. Pardon the rudeness and the repetition, but why are you here?”
Elmidath explained the situation with her uncle and her plan to topple him. Looking away from her, he sighed and shook his head. ”This is what you devote your energy to? Couldn't you be doing something more productive with your time? Not to mention less likely to get you killed. You're both young, I suggest you abandon this foolish endeavour and do something more sensible. Why, as a matter of fact, you could work for me. I could do with some help.”
Elmidath's voice filled the room. ”'Foolish endeavor?' Is that what you call trying to retake what is rightfully mine? My father carved this territory out of nothing, out of feuding warlords with no goals beyond bloodshed. And I'm supposed to just abandon his legacy? Are you senile?”
”Senile?” Tagath's lips twitched upward into a hint of a smile. ”Quite possibly, but even a senile old man can see you're throwing your lives away.” The humour drained from both his face and voice. ”You're lucky enough to be alive as it is by the sounds of it, now you want to waste your good fortune? Why are you so set on taking over from your uncle? Are you truly so arrogant so to think you'd make a better ruler than a higher ranking Demon Lord with far more experience?”
Elmidath's mouth opened and closed as her hands curled into fists. I don't think I'd ever seen her so angry, she looked ready to tear him apart with her bare hands. When she finally spoke, her voice was surprisingly restrained but with an undercurrent of terrible rage. ”Do you know nothing of my father or his plans? I'm his successor, not that cold-blooded bastard of a brother. My father's holdings suffer under his rule, he's already lost most of his forces in just a few days.” Elmidath's reasoning was amusing to me, given that we were a large part of the reason for that.
The old man shrugged. ”You can sit here and insist that you're his rightful successor all day, but it won't change a thing. Do you really expect his retainers to trust you, a girl who's barely stepped outside her house over a seasoned leader?”
Elmidath paused and I could see she was wavering. Was her conviction really so weak before Tagath's relentless reason? Had we risked our lives for a cause she couldn't even argue convincingly for?
There had to be something, some quality that recommended her over her uncle. Elmidath had argued before that he'd lead his followers to ruin but that didn't mean she'd have done any better in his shoes. Perhaps, strangely, her advantage lay in her youth, her lack of experience. ”She may be young and she definitely has less practice at being a leader, but she's brave and I truly believe she wants the best for her people.” I didn't believe that for a second, but hey, she seemed nicer than her uncle. If only marginally. ”In a way her inexperience is an advantage, it means she can learn from the mistakes of those who've come before her rather than being set in her ways.”
Tagath scoffed. ”That's all well and good, but you can hardly expect someone to choose a leader based on potential. They need someone to make the proper choices now, not in a few years' time.”
”True but I don't think she'd make a bad leader in the meantime.”
”Even if they were equal in terms of leadership, which I highly doubt, her uncle is far more personally powerful at this stage. If he can't keep his realm secure then she has no chance whatsoever.”
I was running out of ideas, so I tried appealing to his sentimentality. ”Does your loyalty to her father not count for something? Do you not wish to honour his wishes?”
”No.” A blunt rejection. ”Not if it means acting against good sense. I can't claim to have much interest in what goes on above but this is the wrong choice, beyond a shadow of a doubt.”
I turned to Elmidath. ”Don't you have anything else to say?”
Her voice was low, almost inaudible. ”Maybe he's right. Maybe I've been a fool all along.” It was a logical conclusion but there was no way I could accept it. Not after she'd torn me from my peaceful life into this hellhole of a world. No, we were going to do this, logic be damned. Logic didn't belong in this mad place, anyway.
But how was I supposed to convince this hermit, who spent his time tinkering in the dark, to accept such a rash course of action? He didn't seem like someone who would bend to threats, he had too much backbone for that. And it wasn't like appealing to his emotions would work either, he struck me as too pragmatic. I'd have to convince him Elmidath really was the better choice. ”You overestimate the current Lord Sarinknell's ability as a leader. He hasn't been in power long and already more than a third of his soldiers have betrayed him or died. Even if his ideas are sound, he's simply not the sort of person that people will follow.”
Ah, results-orientated judgement, the perfect tool for attacking someone after something goes wrong, even if it wasn't their fault. ”Now his enemies are gathering, there's no way he'll last more than a few weeks. Elmidath is far from perfect, but she's the best chance we have of salvaging things.” I put as much conviction as I could into my words.