Love as a Form of Binding Ch. 15

When they began to work on the ones which held his hands, Toby looked over and saw that the boy's eyes were watching them, blinking through his tears and sniffling weakly once. He reached with his other hand and touched the head which lay there on a forearm gently for a moment.

"I understand that you have never had a name. I can't imagine not having a name, so I'm going to call you Kerry," Toby said, "You remind me of someone I knew a long time ago with that name. I hope that it's alright with you. You probably haven't got a clue what I'm saying, but you'll be free in another few seconds."

Mother began to translate what Toby had said and she placed a lot of emphasis on the name that he'd been given.

The eyes only regarded them in silence.

Maezou and her sister stepped closer and gently took his ankles and began to rub them, trying to erase the marks of his long imprisonment. He had a thought to try to look at them as well, but he found that he no longer had the ability.

When the last of the pins clicked to the floor, Toby knelt lower and told him that he was going to try to move him very carefully. Mother began to say things in a far older form of the demonic speech. The boy's eyes looked at her for a moment and then drifted back to Toby. This went on for a time, his gaze shifting to the golden-eyed demoness and then back to Toby as she spoke.

"We must leave in a little while to take Kerry with us," she said to Toby, "Try to move him now, but slowly and with care."

She went back to speaking to the boy, trying to explain things and offering her concern.

When Toby slipped his hands under him, the boy only looked at his face and blinked. But when Toby began to take the slight weight of him, the boy's mouth opened slowly in a silent scream of pain. All that came out of him was a very quiet little hiss of agony.

As Toby stood up, he held the thin body only tightly enough so that it wouldn't fall. "I'm so sorry if I hurt you, but we can't stay here forever. So if you want to get out of here, Kerry, ..."

The young man's body ached in so many places, but he tried very hard to hold his head up. He saw the sisters and wondered what he saw in their eyes. He looked at Toby for most of a second, but then the last of his little strength almost left him and he laid his head against Toby's chest.

"Bring him here," mother said from where she sat on the floor with her back against one of the walls, "Bring him to me. I only hope that we have the time for this and I do not know if I can even do it." She closed her eyes for a moment and felt the beginnings of something that she hadn't felt for millennia on end. Her body answered her command, however, and she was pleased for it when she felt the swell beginning.

"Kerry needs something now," she said, "and we have nothing here. We could do this with blood, but that is not my way, and it is not something that I think that this one should ever get or even be offered."

As Toby nodded and knelt slowly to lay Kerry beside her. She held his head under her arm as she felt the let down. She looked into his eyes and moved one of her nipples against his lips.

"I do not know how much I can give to you," she said demonically, "but something is better than nothing for now, and we need to get you away from here before it is known that you are free. I do not know who watches, or even if anyone still does, but we must be gone from here soon."

As his lips closed over her nipple and he began to suck, Mother thought for a moment about Toby and the name that he'd offered. Details came to her as her eyes closed.

She felt something again that she was a little thankful for. She didn't think that any others like her ever got the chance to feel this ever again. She opened her eyes and saw her daughters crouched near to her on the other side. "I just thought that this would work and it is better than asking you to open your throats to him, isn't it? Besides, this never did either of you any harm. I think that you turned out quite well," she smirked.

She began to talk to Kerry again in a very low voice. He listened as she tried to explain it all. Fifteen minutes later, she asked Toby to help as she positioned herself so that she could get him onto her other breast, since it now felt uncomfortably full.

"This is not something that you should have the thought to get used to, Kerry. This is more of an emergency. I enjoy it, but I cannot hope to feed one such as you this way. This is to give you at least a little strength to go where we can look after you better."

He seemed to be listening, but his eyes were on the others now.

When Mother felt that she had no more for him, she was about to tell him, but he lifted his head to look at her. She caressed his head and smiled for a moment.

"You cannot sleep now," she warned gently, "We must go. Tobias will carry you."

Kerry looked up and watched as Toby knelt again to pick him up and carry him out of the chamber very carefully. "Try to stand if you can," he said quietly. "Maezou will hold you up. I have to close the stonework again."

As he worked, Mother helped by offering guidance. At first, the stones wouldn't fit, but Zele drew heat from the adjacent ones and then he could slide them into place before Mother raised the small stones and the dust from the floor to cause it to fly into the crevices between them.

Zele looked at her male for a few moments during the time that he worked to move the stones. "Zele wishes to say that she likes the name that this one was given by Toby. It is a nice name," she said, not catching her mother's warning glance. "What was the Kerry like, the one that Toby knew?"

He stopped for a moment, looking down, and they heard him exhale. "He was my best friend when we were kids. We were pretty close our whole lives, but Kerry always seemed to come in for such shit because of the way that he was. He always had a rough time. His stepdad was a drunk. One night when I was working nights, Kerry got beat up a bit over the way that he looked. Kerry got that a lot. When he got home, his stepfather beat him to death."

Toby sighed, and Zele felt his emotion. She also saw her mother's glare.

"I used to be able to uh, diffuse those times," he said, "and if I couldn't, I'd peel his asshole stepfather off him and get Kerry out of there. I just wasn't there that one time."

She put her hand on his shoulder, "Zele is so sorry that she asked, Toby. Please forgive Zele."

He smiled as he looked up, "It's ok. It was a long time ago. You didn't do anything wrong to ask." He kissed her softly for a moment. "I always love talking with you and Maezou."

Mother noticed something in the dust and she bent to retrieve a single old sword. She carried it as she walked.

The wind eased off a little as they reached the outside doorway. Kerry had resisted their attempts to have Toby carry him. His progress was slow as he hobbled between the females, but when they got near the opening, he nodded at them both, and they thought that they could see at least a tiny little smile.

"You can't fly now," Toby said. "I'll carry you. This won't take too long, I don't think, and then you'll be someplace warm and dry."

From Mother's point of view, the place where he'd been imprisoned could now go back to what it was supposed to have been. The stones were back where they'd been to cover what had lain behind them and it was an old tomb once more, as well as being an archaeological site. Despite having spent some time doing her research into the distant past in places where she'd never gone, Mother had made one uncharacteristic mistake, more of an oversight of a detail, really.

She had wanted to help for some time and had now seen a way to expedite that help as they'd just done in the hope that this Appolyon Kerry might want to help them. She actually didn't see more than a need for him to appear if they were attacked. In her view, they'd at least corrected something that she'd always seen as wrong. However, that view overlooked some things.

The first of what had been overlooked pushed up through the ground which covered the doorway of an undiscovered and fallen–in barrow near to the hill. The snow over top of that ground chilled her face, neck and shoulders as she pushed through to stare with squinted eyes, peering through the wintry darkness into the blizzard, straining to learn about what was going on.

The position left her back end undefended for the moment, and the second of the overlooked things grabbed her haunches for a hopefully quick mating. She pulled her head down underground again and batted her hopeful suitor off easily. She wouldn't have minded what had been attempted, but she had something more important in mind, so before he could back away in fear, she grabbed a horn and yanked him up as she pushed upward again and pointed.

Toby lifted off easily clutching Kerry. They flew in a loose group this time through the gale that Mother would allow to last another two hours at least.

"I will go on ahead," Mother said, coming close for a moment, "Kerry will need a lot to drink and some very gentle food to go into a stomach that has had nothing for so long." When Toby had nodded his understanding, she told him the landmarks that he should look for as she beat her wings and pulled away, accelerating out of sight into the heavy clouds. The air didn't smooth out or even begin to warm a little until they were getting close to Yester Castle.

Toby's arms might have begun to grow a little tired from the effort of it, but he didn't mind. He hated the thought of anyone being held in a place like that for so long. Now and then, he looked at Kerry and wondered about what Mother had said.

He didn't look as though he could hold his own in a fight with a housefly at the moment, yet the old demoness had said that he was a destroyer, born and bred to do nothing other than lay waste. That sure didn't make much sense, he thought.

He glanced down at that face for a moment when he felt Kerry move a little. The eyes that he saw were half squinted shut from the wind and the way that the boy's hair flickered across his face from it. Toby looked away for a second to be sure that he was holding his position before he tried to look again. When he did, Kerry was moving his lips, but Toby heard nothing. Kerry was trying to get his vocal chords to function again.

Toby felt the thin arm as it rose to slide around the other side of his neck, and he felt the weak pull, so Toby helped a little, not wanting to make this trip terribly uncomfortable, or at least no more than it had to be. Kerry moved his head so that his face was out of the wind and against Toby's ear.

The unloved destroyer wasn't a totally empty creature. He had a mind, and though it hadn't been used for much in a long time, it had been thinking lately about the way that his rescuers spoke between themselves. That, and only a little of his own ability allowed him to search for words that he might use.

He used them now to tell of his very guarded thanks, since he did remember how he'd been used by others as they'd commanded him to destroy things as they'd tested him. Mostly, he'd ignored them, but if he felt his annoyance rising, he'd killed the ones who were commanding him then, and he'd be left alone, since that was all that he could look forward to. They'd haul him out of a cell, test him, and then put him back.

He wondered what was to be done with him, but he found that he did like them for what they'd done. In the meantime, he'd spoken his quiet thanks to Tobias and pulled himself tighter to try to stay warm. When he did open his eyes to look past Toby's shoulder, he saw Zele flying there, above and a little behind Toby. He didn't know what she was, since he felt little from her, but she smiled and waved a little to him.

She peeled away a few seconds later, and Kerry noticed the glyphs on Toby's shoulder. "You are a lord, Tobias?" he asked quietly.

"Yes," Toby replied, "though I haven't been one for very long. Why, Kerry? Is that important to you?"

"I do not know," the boy said into Toby's ear. "What is to become of me?"

"Nothing that you don't want, I guess," Toby said, "I didn't know of you until only a few minutes before we came through the wall. Mother knew all along. She said that she's known about you for a long time, but she didn't have much of a way to get you out until now. She thought of you there in the place and I guess that she wants to give you a chance to be free. She's hoping that you might be able to help us, but I don't think you can, and anyway, you probably need more help yourself if you've been locked up for thousands of years. I don't know how much I'll be around in the next little while, but I'd like to help you to learn about the world here so you might be able to live free. How are you feeling, anyway?"

"Better," Kerry said, "weak, but I feel better now. Where will you go?"

"We're going to a place where you can get better and eat a little. You'll be safe there, or as safe as any of the rest of us," Toby said.

"Not to your hell?"

Kerry felt Toby cautiously shake his head a little, "No, Kerry. I don't have a hell. I only hold an old fortress here. Well, mostly, I hold what's below it. I think that I might take another one soon, but only in a careful way because humans use it a little, so we'd only be there at night. I don't hold souls. I don't trade in souls. I don't want a hell. I only want to be left alone to live with my consorts and my friends."

Kerry felt Toby's cheek move from his smile, "I don't even know how to keep on doing that, though I'm willing to try, and I'll fight for that if I can. From what Mother says, I'll need to fight an army."

"I cannot follow everything that you say," Kerry said, "The red-haired one told me who you all are to each other. She said that there is a lord who hunts her, but she will not go back. She did not tell of this war, but I felt that she does not know if it can be won."

"I guess that's the way that it is, Kerry. I'll have a lot to do in the next little while, but I want to help you to learn how to hide in the crowd of humans and maybe stay alive."

"You say that you will not, ... I do not understand," Kerry said.

"You don't need to," Toby said, "You need to learn to live after all of this time in that place."

"Why would you help me?"

Toby smiled, "Mother said that you've never had a friend in your life. The name that I gave you once belonged to my friend. If you think that you'd want to know how it feels to have a friend, just wait a little. You already have a few, and there are a few more that I'm sure would like you."

Kerry had no answer as he thought of this. It was like trying to understand it if someone asked you if you wanted something that you couldn't comprehend, but he felt how the word related to Toby, and Kerry thought that something like that must be worth a lot.

-----------------

Gorek fumed. He was sitting on his throne, listening to the suggestions and counter-offers from the envoys sent by a few of the more profit-minded of his ilk.

"All that I ask is for some help in eradicating what has become a splinter in my ass and your lords want to charge me half the worth of my hell for it," he said, a little exasperated.

"You ask for much," one envoy said, "heavy fighters and soul reavers, Lord Gorek. It leads my ruler to think that you believe that you will face much strength and are not certain that you can win alone. We know the demoness that you want returned to you, but we do not know why it is that she feels that she can speak to a lord the way that it was done. To sell our aid is one thing and a ruler such as ours expects some small losses, since it is a part of conflict. If there is more strength there than what is known, we must project that we will suffer higher losses. We cannot sell the services of defeated fighters, Lord Gorek."

"Fine," he growled, "Then rent me the ones that we bargain for, plus another ten percent, just to make certain. I can offer you seven hundred thousand souls."

All of the envoys shook their heads at that. "We know that you do not have that many here now," they said.

"Well I know that," Gorek rolled his eyes, "I'm including what my renegade hunter will bring in over the next century."

The envoys looked very nervous after that, and the heavy fighters who had been sent along as protection began to gather around as the envoys all made ready to leave.

"Wait a minute," the sand demon protested, "Where are you going?"

"We, ... do not wish to negotiate further, Lord Gorek. You cannot offer what you do not have in hand, and what you say tells us that you do not really know the nature of this one huntress. If you do not know, then it is not our place to tell you. Please contact our lords again if you need insurance."

The towering sandpile tilted his head at that. "Why do I need insurance?"

"Our lords would sell you protection for your hell while you are gone hunting this huntress yourself," they said as they took their leave.

Gorek spent the rest of the day throwing boulders at the walls in his rage.

----------------------

Tereth felt the hooved footfalls on the stonework above not long before the trapdoor was opened. A length of chain was lowered in.

"Climb up," a voice said.

When he hesitated, the chain was whipped around until it hit him twice and then wrapped itself around his neck. Tereth was hauled up choking and found himself on the floor looking up into the featureless eyes of a demon who he'd seen now and again in passing, but had never met.

"When I tell you something, Tereth, "she said flatly through her teeth, "I expect you to comply instantly."

"Who are you?" he asked, but he regretted it a second later when he found himself being held up by his throat, her long fingers curling easily around.

"I'm – I'm sorry for my impudence, "he croaked. It came out of him in a whistling whisper.

"I take no offense," the widely horned one said with a curious half–smile, "I was only setting rules, nothing more."

She put him down and, as he stood holding his own throat there in the darkness, she stood back a little and looked him over. " Very nice," she smiled, "I see a change for the better."

He 'd have spit out any of about a dozen snide comments, but for two things; he'd been warned by three of the females here now, and he had absolutely no doubt that this one was just as deadly – and perhaps even more than the others.

"Your life – as long as it has been, Tereth, has been a total and complete waste," she said. "I make no judgment. I only say the truth, and when compared to almost all of our kind, it is almost the same.

You were spawned and grew up, the same as most of us, born to cruelty and selfishness. You took when you wanted something, and tried to hide when whatever it was had been discovered, knowing that any who had the ability to find out about whatever you'd done could and likely would treat you terribly for it in turn. If not, you laughed and treated those worse off than you even worse."

She took him by the jaw so that he could look nowhere else but her face. "And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that for our kind. It is what we all do. As a male, you took what you wanted and thought nothing of it, though in the case of one female, it has proven very costly.

So, if all had gone well in this rapine way of life that you had, what would it have bought you, no matter which lord you served?"

She leaned forward, "At best, nothing. At worst, pain and suffering under the heel of someone more cruel than you.

But you have been given another life now. You just don't see it yet. I am hoping that you will, Tereth, for if you do not, there is only more pain for you, somewhere and sometime. The somehow is not even important. But if you can see what you have been given, you might see that with a little luck, you might find happiness – which is an absurd notion for a demon to even consider."