“So by my count,” Iason
said, counting on his fingers, “that’s an Old One, the Queen of Summer,
probably the King of Winter, and possibly the god-king of Munn?”
“You forgot Red,” I said.
“Oh, right,” he replied.
“A cannibal Fair Folk serial killer. And now a demon. Possibly all
the demons. Is that everyone?”
“So far!” I chirped
cheerily.
“What are you listing?”
asked Rhoda, pulling on her pack. She’d decided to strike camp as soon as we
were all awake and back in our own heads, so all three of us were getting ready
to set out once more.
“Cosmically powerful
supernatural entities that Lemma’s pissed off,” Iason answered.
“Ah,” she said.
“That’s, um… quite a list.”
I shrugged. “Not my fault they
keep getting in my way.”
“The Lords and Ladies were totally
your fault,” said Iason.
“Were not!”
Rhoda sighed. “Anyway, our deal
stands. Here’s that book.”
She handed me the book solemnly.
“So does this mean you’re done with demons?” I asked.
“You kidding? I had that book
memorized before I was ten!”
“Rhoda,” Iason said
sternly. “The demon you summoned nearly got us!”
Rhoda sighed. “I know. I’ve
gotta be more careful. And I’m definitely never summoning her
again!” She struck a pose that I think she meant to be looking nobly into
the future, but she mostly just seemed constipated. “But so long as there
are innocent villagers in need of defense from the evils of the world, I, Rhoda
the Mighty, greatest warlock in Alba, shall turn evil against itself to protect
them!” She grinned at us. “Whaddaya think? Catchy, right? I’ve been
thinking about how you’d never heard of me, and I figured a good slogan would
help get people talking.”
I resisted the urge to bury my face
in my palms.
“…so,” said Iason after
a while. “Where you headed?”
“North,” she replied.
“Bandits have been raiding a half dozen villages. You?”
Iason turned to me, and I closed my
eyes. “South,” I said. “Really south.”
“South?” He sounded
surprised. “We started in the south and we’ve been working our way north,
how can there be a book to the south? Did we miss one?”
I shrugged. “The closest book
is far to the south, that’s all I know,” I said. “Breizht maybe, or
Kyrno? And I guess it’s possible we missed one. I’m getting better at sensing
them. I couldn’t do it at all before we found the first one, and with every one
we’ve found since, well… It’s possible someone had it hidden away, but
whatever they did to hide it doesn’t work on me now?” I didn’t mention the
other possibility–that it wasn’t the nearest lost book until just now. Because
if that was true…
Well, we’d worry about that if and
when it came to it. I slapped Iason on the back and turned south.
After all, it’s not like I had any
shortage of things to worry about. The book Rhoda gave us was Demonology for
Beginners, which meant we came this close to disaster with demons students
learned to summon. What could happen if whoever had the Book of Agrat
decided to actually use it?
Hopefully I wouldn’t find out. But
maybe it was time to do what I’d been debating with myself about doing for
weeks. Tonight, I was going to start reading The Rite of Uncreation.
Want to see the next Lemma story, and many others, right now? Check out my Patreon for early access to all stories, plus exclusive stories and captions!