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Rhygel smiles, a thing I’ve only had occasion to witness two times. Right now and when we first discovered the host who would change everything. “Oh, but we do, brothers. We do.”
We arrived at the square early, ahead of all other contenders, hoping to catch the seven council members off guard. And we do.
Cloistered in their separate building, erected for the soul purpose of keeping them separate from the rest of demonkind, the council members huddle about murmuring, whispering to each other behind their hands, as if even the walls of their building couldn’t hear the atrocities they spoke of.
“Gentlemen,” Rhygel booms into the room when our presence goes undetected.
He stands ahead of us all. I’m to his right and behind, while Malphas and Barbas stand to his left and behind.
The shocked faces of the council members will be a sight I’ll hold dear for the rest of my life.
“You shouldn’t be here,lesser one,”the head council member hisses. “Leave at once!”
Each of them stands straighter, their robes flowing around limbs gone thin from disuse. They’re old and frail, and why had we ever listened to them in the first place?
Just old men trying to hold on to whatever power they can before they die. Pitiful.
“I’m here to strike a bargain with you,” Rhygel says.
The head council member scoffs, as do the demons at his side. “You have nothing I want. Nothing I care to bargain for.”
It was Rhygel’s turn to stand straighter, grow taller. His horns elongate as his wings snap out beside him. “I think you’re wrong about that.”
The entire council goes stiff, quiet, which they try to hide with masks of arrogance and importance. But none of us are fooled.
Not anymore.
Not since Lily showed us what lies behind the curtain.
“It seems the council has been meddling in things their own high laws forbid.”
The leader scoffs once again. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh? So if I were to ask you about a catastrophic explosion on an island in New York, you wouldn’t have anything to say.”
The council member placed his hand over his chest in mock shock. “Absolutely not.”
“Of course not. And I suppose it doesn’t matter that the explosion had no rational explanation. No real physical cause.”
“Freak accidents happen all the time. You know that just as well as we do.”
“Interesting.”
I want so badly to drop the hammer on this guy. To show him our secret ace in the hole. And judging by the way Malphas is nearly vibrating with rage and excitement, I’ll bet he feels the same.
“Council member, may I ask, where is your seventh?”
The old demon’s eyes bug out, but he catches himself and schools his face. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, come now. We can all count here. There are only six of you. The council has always been seven.”
“That is no concern of yours,” bellows the demon behind the head council member.
“I think it is. And I think you know why.”
The head member sighs, a great long-suffering sound. “Oh, get on with it, then. None of us are growing any younger listening to you prattle on about nothing.”
“Doesn’t your seventh member have a rare horn anomaly, causing him to only have one horn, right in the middle of his forehead?”
