Faerie Wars | The Purple Emperor
Ruler of the Realm

Faerie Wars

Many Faeries of the Night are quite prepared to harness little demons. But Silas Brimstone decides to go a whole lot further. Using a foul book of dark magic, he summons up the Prince of Hael itself. And quickly finds out he’s bitten off far more than he can chew…

Brimstone swallowed. There was something about Beleth that made him nervous. Well, actually everything about Beleth made him nervous. He’d called up demons before, but they’d all been small fry. This was the first time he’d managed a prince. He licked his lips.

‘Oh mighty Beleth,’ he began, ‘I beseech — no, I command thee to remain within thy triangle of goat guts for such time as I — ’

Beleth growled. ‘Command? You dare to command me?’ He had a surprisingly piercing voice for something that rumbled like the thunderstorm outside.

‘C-c-command thee to remain within the triangle of g-guts for such time as I determine and — ’ Most demons blustered. You had to be firm with them otherwise they’d try to walk all over you.

‘Quiet!’ Beleth thundered.

Brimstone shut up at once. He hoped the monster couldn’t see he was trembling. It occurred to him that maybe this whole business hadn’t been such a bright idea. You were always hearing horror stories about how difficult the larger demons were to control. Of course, much of it was Faerie of the Light propaganda, but there was obviously a grain of truth. To his horror, Beleth leaned forward so that the upper half of his body loomed over the boundaries of the triangle and even impinged across the edge of the circle. This wasn’t supposed to happen. This wasn’t supposed to happen at all. He swung the blasting wand to point at Beleth’s head.

The demon stared at the weapon and smiled.

‘Beware, Beleth,’ Brimstone said tightly, his jaw clenched to stop his teeth chatttering. ‘For I shall so smite thee with my frightful blasting wand that thy teeth shall — ’

Beleth’s smile widened and a curious discordant ringing sound began to fill the attic room. It crawled into Brimstone’s head to fuzz his thoughts and cause an eerie blood-red veil to rise behind his eyes. The wand in his trembling hand began to droop, then melt. Even in his terror, Brimstone set up a howl of protest. The money!

Beleth watched as the wand dissolved completely, then raised his gaze to Brimstone’s face. ‘You don’t have to threaten me.’

‘I don’t?’ Brimstone said.

Beleth shrugged. ‘A simple contract of sacrifice will bring you what you want.’

Relief flooded through Brimstone like a balm. Every demon asked for a sacrifice. ‘Doves? Cats? Dogs? Nice little sheep?’ he asked. ‘You don’t want a bull, do you?’ Bulls were expensive. Not to mention tricky to kill. A sudden thought struck him. ‘Wait a minute — it’s a rare breed, isn’t it? Something on the endangered list?’

‘No, nothing like that. I just want you to sacrifice the second person you see after you leave the circle.’

Brimstone’s eyes widened. ‘You mean a human sacrifice?’

‘Exactly!’ Beleth rumbled.

© Herbie Brennan