Chaos God, page 22
“Where--” the younger girl started to ask.
“Hush!” the older woman whispered aggressively to her without moving an inch.
The blonde girl’s eyes went wide and flicked around the room as a single drop of sweat rolled down her temple.
My heart clenched as I watched her, and I realized there was something familiar about the angle of her nose, and the shade of her wheat-blonde hair. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I felt like I’d seen her before.
I watched and listened silently for what felt like hours, but really it was probably only about five minutes. My whole body was filled with tension, and my nerves felt like the strings on a guitar that had been pulled too tight. The stress was palpable in my muscles, and my heart beat rapidly in my tiny chest. The two women seemed to be just as stressed by the prolonged wait as I was, and the younger girl’s arms started to tremble from the weight of the silver tray in her hands.
While we waited, several other human servants silently came into the room, and they all lined up along the length of the heavy wooden table. There were both men and women, humans and elves, and they all stood beside one of the large silver trays.
They wore dirty clothes and aprons tied snuggly around their waists, but as I studied their faces closely, I realized that they all wore the same haggard expressions of life in servitude, too. One of the older women seemed oddly familiar, and I studied her face for a moment. She had gray hair tied back in a tight bun at the base of her neck and a sour look on her face. I’d never seen her before, and then I realized she reminded me a bit of Ylva with that lemon-sucking purse on her thin lips.
I clenched my mouse teeth together as the anticipation grew to an almost painful intensity, and finally, I heard the thundering voice of the Demon Lord approaching.
“Where is my dinner!” the Demon Lord hollered, and he stomped into the room so forcefully that everything on the table began to tremble.
I sucked in my breath and curled my thin tail around myself in an instinctual attempt to make my body even smaller than I already was.
The tray in the blonde girl’s hands clattered violently for a second before she gripped the handles hard enough to turn her knuckles white, and then it was as silent as the rest of the room.
“I am hungry!” The Demon Lord burst into the room like a hurricane.
Every pair of eyes in the room except my own suddenly found the floor entirely fascinating.
I couldn’t take my eyes off the Demon Lord as he stomped forward and stopped beside his massive chair.
He was the spitting image of the huge statue I’d seen in the main hall. His horns were curled a bit more than the statue, and he seemed to have grown a pointed beard from his chin since the statue was carved. The biggest difference between the statue and the Demon Lord before me was his size, though. I’d thought the statue was large, but this fucker was even bigger. He was easily as tall as the troll had been, and he was as thick as a bus. His chest was covered in thick banks of muscle and wiry black hair, and his arms bulged with barely contained strength.
Two humans rushed forward and scraped the chair back, and the Demon Lord dropped into the seat, leaned back, and propped his cloven hooves up on the table.
“Oh, fucking shit,” I said to myself, but the only sound that came from me was the tiniest squeak of shock that escaped from between my four front teeth.
Chapter 15
This guy was fucking huge, but even worse than that was that he was clearly far more intelligent than the troll had been. The whole prospect of going up against this asshole sent my heart racing again, and I felt a fresh dump of fight or flight hormones in my brain.
“What are you slaves waiting for?” the Demon Lord demanded at the top of his lungs, and his glowing orange eyes narrowed at the humans and elves lined up along the table.
The servants rushed to obey their master’s demands, and they each reached forward and quickly removed the large silver domes from the trays.
I couldn’t see most of the offerings on the table from my vantage point on the ground, but the smells of roasted meat, steamed vegetables, thick gravy, and freshly baked bread reached my small nose. I flicked my eyes around for a way to get a better look at everything, and I decided the long tapestry at the back of the room was my best option.
“Go!” The Demon Lord gestured aggressively with his four-fingered hand. “Leave me to my meal.”
The humans and elves didn’t need a second invitation, and they scurried away quickly and disappeared through various doors.
For a second, I debated whether I should rush after them to find out if I could hear more of their conversations, but I decided to stay and investigate the Demon Lord instead. I should stay here and observe as much as I could about this huge asshole.
The Demon Lord dove into his meal like a starving animal, and he began to rip the cooked animal carcasses apart with his bare hands. I watched in horror for a moment as he slammed an entire chicken leg into his mouth, bone and all, and chewed it with his mouth wide open. Then he began to shove an entire handful of something green into his mouth before he picked up a gallon-sized silver goblet and took a huge drink of the red liquid inside.
I took advantage of his intense focus on his meal, and I scurried quickly over to the tapestries directly behind the Demon Lord’s chair. I hoped climbing as a mouse was as intuitive as swimming in my whale form had been. I leaned up on my back legs and clutched the thick fabric with my little mouse claws, and I was pleased to discover the task was much easier than I remembered the rope climb in PE class being.
I climbed all the way to the top of the tapestry and scurried over the edge to a small ledge at the top of one of the pillars, and I peered down at the table from a perfect bird’s-eye view.
My stomach turned and clenched as I took in the feast that had been laid out before the Demon Lord. There was a wild rabbit, something that looked vaguely like a boar, and some kind of fowl, which were all pretty normal. It was the two long legs that ended in five rounded toes that made me sick to my stomach. I also couldn’t help but notice that the goblet he’d drunk from appeared to be filled with blood. The liquid was far too viscous to be wine. So not only did he eat the people that were sacrificed to him, he drank them as well.
Or at least some of them.
There was little question in my mind about where the Demon Lord’s servants had come from, but I wondered how he chose which ones to have for dinner and which ones he allowed to live. I expected they weren’t allowed to live indefinitely, and that when the people ran out their usefulness, they became dinner as well.
The Demon Lord reached out and picked up the left leg, and I tore my eyes away from the roasted human flesh before it reached his teeth. There was more than enough food on this table, and even a beast as large as the Demon Lord probably couldn’t eat it all. It pissed me off to great lengths to think of all this extra food going to waste, and how constant a source of worry food scarcity was for the people in the camp.
The thick, doughy rolls on the table remained entirely untouched by the Demon Lord as he ate his fill with as much grace as a Neanderthal. I hadn’t seen any bread or heard a single mention of flour since I’d arrived here on Asgard, and I’d just assumed there was no way to make it. The Demon Lord’s spread was clear evidence that wasn’t true at all, and the fact that he didn’t seem to have a taste for the sweet-smelling bread pissed me off.
I watched the Demon Lord for a few minutes and took the time to study his anatomy. His body was layered with thick muscles, and I discovered that he had quick reflexes when a roasted potato began to roll off the tray and onto the floor. The beast snatched it out of the air and slammed the whole thing into his mouth in the blink of an eye. I could also tell that he had the same slightly different joints that Elora had taught me about in lower demons, and I made a mental note of that fact.
I wondered if the Demon Lord had any weak points in his body, perhaps at the base of his throat or under his ribcage. I figured if nothing else, the eye sockets were always a good point of access into any creature’s body.
“Mmmm.” The Demon Lord slowed down eventually, and he leaned back in his massive chair like he was going to take a nap.
I watched for another minute, and when the beast’s thick chest started to rise slowly, I knew he was asleep. I didn’t hesitate to use his unconsciousness to escape the foul-smelling beast, and I scurried quickly back down the tapestry and past the pillars into the hall I’d entered from. I didn’t think it was possible for my body to have made more adrenaline already, but when the Demon Lord’s arm slipped from his chair I felt the kick of animalistic terror in my nervous system. I raced out of the room like a gazelle fleeing from a crocodile at the watering hole.
Now that I wasn’t rushing to follow the servant women, I had a chance to look around a little more. The sconces on the walls were all slightly different from one another, and I could see a bit of dried-out and decaying flesh around the rims where the fire burned. My stomach did a little flip as I realized these weren’t decorative horns, but that they were likely trophies of the demons the Lord had slain.
There were a few large rectangular-shaped areas of a slightly lighter shade than the rest of the walls between the pillars. They reminded me of scenes in movies when paintings and furniture were moved for the first time. I could see the difference in the wallpapers and carpets, and I wondered what had hung on those spaces long enough to alter the shade of the off-white stone.
I turned left and continued back to where the two servant women had first appeared. Then I peeked around the corner and found a narrow stone staircase leading into the belly of the castle. I quirked my mouse ear, and I strained to hear any noises from below.
The distant clanging of pots and pans echoed up the stairwell to me, and I guessed this was probably where the kitchens were. I started down the long stairs, and as I went, I wondered who had built this castle. When I first heard about the Demon Lord, I had just assumed that he’d had it built when he took over the area, but maybe it had existed before that. Perhaps one of the Aesir that Wyn had spoken about had lived in this castle before Ragnarok.
It took me a few minutes to descend the flight of narrow stone steps, and the voices of the busty elf woman and the young blonde woman grew clearer as I went. About halfway down, I realized I needed to keep my adrenaline up or I was in danger of shifting back to my human form in the middle of this demon castle. The very thought was enough to send another dump of the hormone into my brain, but I moved my feet a little faster.
Thankfully, I’d been in a pretty constant state of fight or flight stress since I’d snuck into the castle walls.
A third male voice joined in the conversation and redirected my focus, but it wasn’t until I reached the bottom of the stairs that I could make out their words.
“…such a shame, really,” the male voice said.
“What it is, is torture,” the young woman said, and her tone was filled with rage and spite. “It is vicious to bring the new sacrifices directly into a room with an enormous table laden with all kinds of delicious-smelling foods. I feel as though it would almost be preferable to be taken straight to the dungeons.”
The three of them stood around a rough wooden table scattered with flour. The older elf woman was kneading a large lump of dough, and there was a smudge of loose flour on her forehead. The man was human, and he was busy scrubbing the pots and pans clean in a huge basin near an enormous open fire. The young woman had a large pile of wild carrots in front of her, and a palm-sized brush of wild boar bristles in her hand. She scowled down at the root vegetables with hatred in her blue eyes.
“You know as well as I,” the older woman sighed. “His Lordship prefers to gaze upon his sacrifices as soon as they arrive at the castle so he can decide who will be best suited in service to him in each capacity.”
“Yes,” the human man agreed with a sour look on his face. “And so he may decide who looks the most delicious.”
A shudder ran up my spine at the man’s words, not to mention the fact that neither of the women disagreed with him. They both lowered their eyes back to their work as if it wasn’t even worth making a counterpoint.
“There is little to be done about it,” the older elf said, and her gently wrinkled face fell with regret. “Let us focus on preparing the feast for the full moon.”
“We should burn the feast.” The blonde woman crossed her arms in defiance. “Destroy every last morsel. If the Demon Lord is so hungry, then he can cook for himself.”
“Fool,” the elf chided her. “You know that would only bring about very painful and slow deaths for us, and his Lordship would only replace us on the next full moon.”
“Yes, I know,” the blonde sighed heavily, and her shoulders slumped under the truth of the older woman’s words. “There must be something to be done.”
“Astrid,” the elf woman said gently, and she stopped kneading the dough to look at the blonde girl. “Has anyone ever returned from the Demon Lord’s castle before?”
“No,” Astrid murmured, and her voice was heavy with despair. “Never.”
“Mhmm.” The older woman nodded as if that was all the explanation they needed to end this conversation, and she set back to preparing the bread.
“I do not see much point in continuing to serve his Lordship,” the man said with disdain, “if he is only going to kill us anyway.”
“Because,” the elf woman said sagely, “if we serve him and do so to his liking, he will make our deaths quick and easy. You know as well as I that the only prize we will win by angering him is painful and torturous deaths. Never forget, he’ll eat us alive if he’s got the temper to…”
The young blonde woman shuddered at the words, and her sickly expression made me realize she may have actually witnessed this before.
It was clear that these people hated the Demon Lord as much as I did. Even the older elven woman, who seemed resigned to make the best of her unfortunate circumstances, spoke about the Demon Lord with disgust in every line of her face. After listening to these fine people, I was more determined than ever to kill this fucker and set them all free. I wondered who they were, and if they had family in the camp missing them and mourning their deaths.
I wished I had more time to really explore the castle. There was so much of the space I hadn’t seen, and I couldn’t shake the suspicion that more demon guards were lurking somewhere within these halls.
I was starting to feel worn down from the constant levels of stress I’d been maintaining since I’d shifted into my mouse form, though, and I didn’t think I’d be able to keep it up much longer. I knew there was a limited amount of adrenaline the human brain could produce in a given amount of time, and I felt like I was probably pushing my luck as it was.
I needed to get out of here before my brain ran out of the fight or flight hormone and I ended up unwillingly shifting back into a human. I could only imagine the smug look on the Demon Lord’s face if he found a human shifter who’d been lurking around his castle.
I shook my head and thought about what I had learned so far.
The Demon Lord kept at least some of the sacrifices alive to serve in his castle. He ate a lot of food, but not everything that was set before him. He seemed to favor the meat platters and the root vegetables the most.
Suddenly, I had a stroke of inspiration, and my whiskers twitched excitedly as an idea formed in my brain.
Nestryn had pointed out that poisonous plant, and there had been a lot of it growing on the other side of the river. I had to assume that a large enough dose of it could take down a creature even as massive and powerful as the Demon Lord. I could use the hatred of these kitchen servants to my advantage and have them poison the bastard’s food. If I was lucky, it would be enough to kill him, but even if it wasn’t, it would certainly give me an upper-hand in a fight with the asshole.
I scurried around the kitchen, and I did my best to stay out of sight for the time being. I wanted to see how much the Demon Lord had stored away down here. If he had all kinds of food and supplies stashed, it would be hugely beneficial for us to raid the pantries.
There was a cold storage room off the kitchen on the opposite side from the large fireplace, and I scurried inside. The cool stone walls were lined with wooden shelves, and the shelves were piled high with sacks of flour, baskets of potatoes, carrots, and onions. I spotted something that looked like radishes, and another smaller basket filled with rock salt. Extra pots and pans were hanging from the ceiling, and even some sharp knives and other utensils. The place was a treasure trove of kitchen supplies, and I knew the villagers would all be thrilled to add these things to our supplies.
I wondered what other rooms the castle had, and what other goodies we might be able to find. Maybe clothes, blankets, or even things like weapons. The possibilities were endless, especially if this castle had once belonged to an Asgardian.
I scampered back into the kitchen to have one more quick look around to make sure I hadn’t missed anything important. The three enslaved people were working silently on their individual tasks, but I did see something advantageous that I had overlooked on my first inspection of the large room.
High above where the human man was scrubbing pots, there was a narrow window that looked out on a cloudy sky. It was only about a foot wide and maybe four inches tall, but it was plenty big enough for a mouse, or perhaps a bird, to squeeze through.
I smirked to myself and started to lay out a plan to defeat the Demon Lord as I began to hunt for a way up to that window. I would need to come back here, not only to deliver the poisonous plant that Nestryn had pointed out, but also to get more information about the castle. I had to know more about what was going on here, how many guards there were, and the castle layout itself.
Or I might as well just scurry right into the dining hall this minute and allow my shift to end in full view of the Demon Lord.
