Amara and Rath's Tale
This story is rated for Readers Over 16 for sexual situations and violence
Riosu was watching the odd group through the eyes of his spy, the same bird creature that Amara had noticed. It was a strange group -- a young human female traveling with three demons - and demons that should not be companions: a fire demon lord, a wolf demon and a cat demon. Why would these four be traveling together? And more importantly, why were they traveling in a direct line to his tower?
Using his magic, he tried to dissuade them, making the land seem the same, as if they were not advancing, hoping that they would give up and turn back, or think they were lost and turn in a different direction, but his magic did not work. The determined group would soon be at his doorstep.
A high circular wall enclosed his tall tower with a stone archway on one side and a stone path leading to his door, but there were no physical barriers because magic was far more effective than stone or wood, but this group had aroused the mage's curiosity, so he allowed them to approach his tower.
Finally we went over one last hill and saw the tower in the valley below. It was tall and narrow, and seemed to be made of black cinder block stones. There was a wall around the tower, but the doorway was wide open. Even still, the tower did not look welcoming. There were no signs of life at all around it, except for that same distant bird circling overhead. Even grass and plants did not grow anywhere around this forbidding land. I missed my garden more than ever and was glad that we had finally found the tower. Now we could bind the mage and take him home with us.
Leading the three demons, I walked through the archway and down the stone path to the door. I knocked on the huge oak and iron door, but my small hand barely made a sound. Zarra pounded on the door and it opened silently with unseen hands. We went through it, with Kala looking behind the door to see who had opened it, but no one was there.
We were in a circular room, which was dark and empty with no furniture and only a couple of torches throwing dim light from the walls of the room. To the right was a stairway winding its way along the tower wall to disappear into the low ceiling. Cautiously we walked up the stairs. The ceiling of one level became the floor of the next. The second story was a living area, with polished wooden floors and comfortable chairs and rugs. A warm fire burned in the fireplace on the far wall. Another staircase hugged the wall, going to the next level. I wondered how many levels were in this tower. Considering the height of it, there might be as many as ten or twelve levels. Again, there was no one here to greet us so we continued our journey up the next set of stairs.
This time the room was a half circle in shape and made into a dining hall with a large round table and wooden chairs in the center. There were two doors on the straight side, and I realized that this room had been divided, and the kitchen was probably behind the doors. But again no one greeted us.
Rath expressed his concern about the ease of our entry. Obviously this tower was being lived in and not abandoned. Why we being allowed to walk in without question? He put his hand on his sword and walked very close behind me.
The fourth level was a library, the walls covered with curved bookshelves and hundreds of books. I didn't realize so many books existed! How were we ever going to carry all these books back to my little house? And where would we put them? I would have to build a house just for the books!
Again we went up the stairs, and I just had time to register a bedroom and a tall man standing in the center, dressed in a long black robe. His hair was pure white and his face pale. I saw red eyes and then everything went black.