Fifty-seven
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This was becoming entirely ridiculous, to say nothing of frustrating.

The demon that had sworn to give him the power of lightning had never returned. Worse still, Sikial had been driven so incoherent by whatever it had seen that Patrick gave up trying to make any sense of its ravings and sent it back to the demon plane.

Which left him badly weakened, since it was through Sikial that he drew power. For days now, he'd been forced to rely entirely on his own wits and his own power. What use was a hysterical demon? He'd tried recalling it once, a week ago, only to be treated to more of the same; he'd banished it within minutes.

Maybe if he called Sikial back, the demon would finally have recovered its wits? His patience was rapidly running out.

He sat cross-legged in the middle of the motel bed, closed his eyes, and centred himself. Since Sikial was on the demon plane, not the human one, it would require the full invocation to make himself heard.

His pet demon materialized looking distinctly nervous, its eyes darting everywhere, but it didn't panic as it had before. Who ever heard of a demon panicking?

“Are you prepared to behave more appropriately than you were last time?” Patrick demanded.

“Yes, master,” Sikial said eagerly. “Will obey, master. Have been searching for a gift for you, master, to offer you if you decided to call me back.”

Oh? This sounded much more like what he wanted to hear. “A gift?”

“Yes, master. The ones you sent the constructs after, all three are in the same place. You could go, you could have all three.”

Patrick frowned. A pleasant thought, but he didn't like the odds of such a battle. “I assume you have a solution to make quite sure I win?”

“Yes, master. Three of the more powerful demons than I, they wish very much to help. I am to tell you for them that if you call them for that purpose, they will swear not ever to do anything to harm you, and will give you the power of lightning that you hunger for.”

“They want the mage too?”

“No, master. The wolf. If they can have the wolf, they will help you to get the other two. They offer an ability they believe will be of use in that, a more enhanced version of elvenmage telepathy than any demon you have yet dealt with has been able to give. You can already see more deeply than others. This will allow you to build on that to twist internal perceptions.”

Hm. A tempting offer. Sikial seemed too intimidated to be pulling any demonic tricks, and the proposed oath seemed sound. To see those three suffer and die, especially that Lioren mage, and to have the lightning as well...

“Why do they care so much about the wolf?” he asked.

Sikial writhed, but reluctantly confessed, “He has demon blood, master. He is a threat to all demons. Him and his brother and sister.”

A part-demon werewolf? That was interesting. “How does that make them a threat?”

“They kill demons, master. Like other wolves kill predators. The brother and sister killed the demon you demanded the lightning from.”

Ah, so that was why it didn't return: it had challenged greater prey than it had any right to, when it should be thinking about fulfilling its bargain with him.

Which meant it had intended to kill that little black wolf and possibly either the Lioren or the annoying human, if it had succeeded with the brother and sister. He made a mental note to discover later whether Sikial had been aware of the identities of its targets, because it certainly knew Patrick wanted his own revenge on them.

It did explain, as well, why Sikial had gone hysterical: it wasn't a great demon, and was prone to strong reactions, and something like watching a couple of wolves kill a demon stronger than it would certainly affect it.

Simply to get his hands on that mage, and teach him a lesson about taking for granted the power fate had given him, that would be enough, without the extra gift to make it even sweeter. And surely the demons were overreacting to the danger posed. Three wolves couldn't be everywhere, and couldn't be much of a threat against a truly powerful demon.

“Where?” he asked Sikial.

“All in Haven, master. The greater ones would have me ask you to wait until the moon is past full.”

That was only three nights away, he could spend that much time plotting and daydreaming of the pleasures to come.

Right in Haven... he hadn't set foot in any of the villages in a decade or more, since leaving Falias. There shouldn't be any problems, though, no one would get involved in something that wasn't their immediate concern. It would be simply him against the Lioren mage, and he could have the human afterwards. Watching the wolf die, with his sister and brother, killed by a trio of demons, would be enough; at least the damned wolf would actually die this time.

No matter which way he turned it in his mind, he saw no real possibility of losing.

“I believe I'll leave in the morning,” he mused aloud. “And stay closer to Haven, but in the city so I can build up my power. From there, with you to focus, I should be able to gate directly to Haven when I choose... That will work. I'll need to gather more power between now and then. One tonight, here, and I'm sure I can find another once I'm closer to Haven.”

“Not the dark moon, master,” Sikial murmured.

“I need a lot of power in a hurry,” Patrick said bluntly. “I'll feed you every night for the next three nights, if I can have it.”

Sikial licked its lips. “Fair bargain, master.” It knelt, bowed low enough to touch the floor with its forehead.

“Good.”

Patrick smiled to himself. He'd take no chances, this time. He'd go with all the power he could gather, with the aid of three powerful demons...

Perhaps life had not taken such a terrible turn after all.

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