Chapter 10


It took the better part of a week before the twins were able to even crawl from their places in front of the fireplace. They had been bitten by very poisonous snakes and the old man was hard pressed to save them. All of his healing skills and several spells were needed to just get them to this point. Right now they were as helpless as newborns. He would have to find someone or something else to stop the girl. He took a candle and lit it, then went to the back of the cottage, to a hidden stairway and went down to the underground chamber. There was a large circle inscribed on the floor. There was a five pointed star inside the circle and candles at each of the points. A lantern hung from the ceiling above, directly centered over the circle.

The room had a strange smell to it, not just mold and mildew, but an underlying scent of decay. There was a live chicken in a small cage by the wall, on a table with a collection of other items. There were several knives, a black curved stick, a goblet and an odd shaped jar with a cork in it.

The old man took his candle and walked around the circle, lighting the candles on the floor and muttering what sounded like nonsensical words. He then went to the center of the circle, poured out some wax from the candle he held and then pressed the candle down into the hot wax. Then he set the goblet next to the candle.

He stepped back out from the circle and reached into the cage, grabbing the chicken by the neck. It flapped madly, trying to claw it's way to escape. The old man took one of the knives and yelling out a name, cut the chicken's head clean off. Blood spurted from the chicken's neck, and the old man sprayed the circle with it.

When the chicken flopped limply in his hands, he held it over the goblet so that a small amount of blood collected in the bottom of it. Picking up the jar, he set it in the center as well, and pulled out the cork. He took the goblet and poured the blood into the jar. He called out an invocation in a strange, high pitched sing song.

Smoke began to rise from the jar, and the old man turned quickly to pick up the black stick. Waving it, he spoke again in a strange language. A face appeared in the smoke, then a red and black shining body, and finally a long tail. The demon nodded to the old man as the task was explained.

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