Nobody answered Sadrahan’s question for a lengthy, uncomfortable silence until he shrugged it off and walked away saying, “I’ll just get some more food for you, then. Remain still, don’t strain yourselves.”

But no sooner than the demon was out of sight than the whispers went up. “Is he serious?” Sarthas asked, inching himself up to a seated position after a series of pain filled grunts.

“I-I think so.” Liln swallowed hard and handed out the chunks of meat and fruit left behind. “But how? He can fly and humans can’t, but that’s worth only so much.”

Nobody responded to that before Sadrahan returned and distributed several long strips of meat, and the band of frail, starved demons huddled close together against the stone walls of the cavern, bathed in green light from the mossy sky, Sadrahan didn’t sit with them, instead he stood in front of them and asked, “How do I find the humans? Did you pass near a village of humans on the way here? If you did, how did they respond to you? What did you see while you were with them? How many were there? Where were you kept? Are there any more of you who escaped that might be out there now?”

His questions came swift as a high wind, and as if they were the leaves the wind struck, all they could do was tremble at the touch of every question until the billowing stopped. When it did, Sarthas was the first to speak, “There was a village, but I avoided it when I saw the banner of the many eyed serpent on the walls.”

“The what?” Sadrahan asked, scratching his left horn at the unfamiliar term.

“Banner. It’s like a blanket with a symbol on it, but they hang it on walls and poles.”

“Oh. Why?” Sadrahan asked.

“To mark their places and people.” Sarthas explained.

Sadrahan gave a sluggish nod, until it dawned on him what that meant. “They have more than one place… the forts, like Midas the Younger said, and the city place…”

“I’ve heard of the cities, but never been there.” Liln acknowledged, “But yes, they have more places, so they mark them to identify their own. We were kept in a deep hole that went into a small mountain. Every day we send up rock, they take the rock they like, and if we gave them enough, they gave us food and water. If we did not, we went hungry.”

She clutched her wide eyed child close to her breast, “We went hungry often.”

Sarthas clenched his fist, “Some demons turned on us, sided with the guards, they got extra food every day, informed them if there was anyone planning to climb out of the hole, kept the rest of us from organizing anything. There were demons from a dozen villages there. Maybe… maybe more.”

The unnamed demon chimed in, his expression full of awe as Sadrahan simply nodded along, “There were more who got out than us, but we can’t know how many or where they went. Most, I think, came this way. But it was chaos, there’s no way to know. The humans, they were the number of two big villages and wore metal and leather clothing. They also had bows and spears, a few had swords.”

“What’s a sword?” Sadrahan asked. ‘Ignorance… so much I don’t know… this may be more dangerous than I thought.’

The demon held his hands out the distance of his forearm. “A piece of flat metal about this long, with a pointed tip and sharp edge, like a long knife. Also they kept dogs, big dogs that they used for hunting, but not so many of those.”

“I see. So any survivors of my village?” He asked.

“They are, or were, there.” The collective of voices came up at once, and again he gave only a nod of understanding.

“I will search for more of the ones who ran, then when I find none for a day or two, I will try to go get some trapped ones. But when I do, and you are all strong enough, something else must be done.” Sadrahan said and cleared his throat, they leaned toward him expectantly, breathless in their anticipation.

“If you can, you will have to leave, walk to the other villages of demons, tell them to run, to come here. The land is good, and it is far from man and the mountain is strong.” Sadrahan said, and his shoulders slumped, a sorrowful frown came over his face, “We did not listen to our friend when he warned us, he told us the truth and none of us believed. None of us. He warned us of burned and vanished villages, he warned us of a city and forts, but we did not believe and now my village is dead. All our villages are dead. We did not believe because we could not see. You however, you the villages that still live, can see. When they see your cut wings and scars, they must believe. Or… so I hope.”

For a moment, horrified looks passed over the faces of the village demons at the prospect of leaving the safety of the mountain, but as he explained, understanding dawned, and bowed heads followed.

“But that will be many villages here… there have never been so many demons in one place.” Sarthas protested, the numbers doubling and redoubling many times in his mind, beautiful and alarming at once…’Always there are just barely enough to do work… but with so many…?’ The possibilities seemed endless, and having seen the human fort, ‘It is possible.’ He now knew.

“There will have to be, now.” Sadrahan countered, “I know it is not what we have done but-” He scratched his horn, and snatched up a piece of wisdom from his wife, “Long ago, I was hunting deer, and always I failed. I went to the east side of the lake, I knew the deer would drink, and it seemed a good place. But always, I came home with nothing. I explained to my Lamash what I was doing, and expressed anger that it did not work. She told me to look to the other side of the lake, she told me that if I act as I want the deer to act, and not as they want to act themselves, I will not find my game. So I did as she said, and came home with deer to eat that next day. We want the humans to act as villagers and mind themselves, but they do not, they come in many, they do not mind themselves, they cut our wings and kill us and make us who live, work for them and starve. We must do different things, or we will suffer again.”

“I will walk when I am able.” Liln acknowledged, “Everyone who can will carry the truth on their backs, and bring back all who will listen.”

Sarthas held his head down in humility. “I will do the same, or anything else we need done. What happened, can’t happen again.” One and all, those of age to act as Sadrahan wished, agreed.

“Good. Now it is late, I will sleep, I suggest you do the same.” Sadrahan said, and going to where his daughter slept, he picked her up and rested himself against the wall, laying her curled into the crook of his arm so that she slept against his side. He was asleep in an instant.

The others, not so much. Between their sudden rescue and the whirlwind of events, their blood ran hot with excitement, fear, and hope, and they huddled together to eat and spoke in whispers so quiet that even the walls of the cave couldn’t speak back to them in its echoes.