novelraw Chapter Eight
Chapter Eight
Chapter Eight
“‘Tis time, Arach. Ye’ve served yer purpose. ’Tis time for ye to go back through the portals and torment this world no more.” The Cailleach’s solemn voice rumbled like distant thunder atop the ocean breeze wafting across the face of the cliff.
“Go?” Arach pulled one eye open. Hoisting his head slowly from atop his folded arms, he shook it hard from side to side. The worrisome midges buzzing about his oozing jowls scattered into the air. “Why would I wish to leave such a fertile hunting ground?
Belching a bug-zapping blaze out of one nostril, Arach curled his snakelike beard back over one shoulder. “I’ll admit I’ve grown a bit bored with the ease of the kills but I’m nay a fool. Better to grow fat from the meat of an easy kill then become thin by utter choosiness for a particular prey.” If the nagging old woman thought he was going anywhere other than off this ledge to stir a bit of mischief across her lands, then the ancient spirit of the moors was a damn fool. Life was good here. Delicious mortals abounded. He wasn’t about to leave this world.
Lightning flickered through swollen layers of graying clouds hanging low across the horizon. “‘Tis time for ye to move on to the next reality. Your purpose here is fulfilled.”
“My purpose?” Arach chuckled and extended a lethal foreclaw under his curled lip in search of another annoying piece of rotted meat wedged between his fangs. “I decide my purpose here, old woman. Not you.”
“Ye were allowed to breach the portal of this realm because the mortals here sorely needed a cleansing. Ye’ve done well. Ye’ve purged the land. Now ’tis time for ye to move on.”
“Allowed?” Arach straightened until the top of his horned head brushed against the uneven ceiling of the entry to the lair. “No one allows me anything, old woman. Do ye truly think me a fool? I would’ve easily mastered the magic of the portal with or without your help. Ye merely guided me to this world. Ye know in the heart of yer very essence that I would’ve eventually found it without ye. Ye take far too much credit for the lovely destruction we’ve both enjoyed over the years.”
Hooking his taloned paws over the protruding curve of the ledge, Arach stretched his tattered wings to their fullest span. With a nod toward a mottled curlicue tattooed across the inside of his foremost right wing, Arach heated the mark with a well-aimed snort until the stained flesh took on an inky sheen. “Do ye see that mark, old woman? Do ye have the foggiest idea what it means?”
“I am well aware of your status, Arach. Dinna bore me with your presumptuous theatrics. Do ye truly think I’d allow entry of anything into this world other than the highest ranking of the ancient demons? I chose carefully for a proper cleansing of my beloved land.”
“Ye allowed nothing, ye pompous bitch.” The coals in his gullet churned with restless fury, arming for inevitable combustion. How dare the Cailleach take airs with him, Arach, reaper and annihilator of all worlds scattered among the portals. “I tire of your nattering, old woman. Leave my presence now or risk stirring my ire until I find it necessary to destroy all your pets.”
“Fine, Arach. Do as ye will. But ye should know that I will soon awaken him.”
“Who?”
“Ye know exactly who. He bested ye once before.”
“Ah.” Arach sucked in a belly-stretching breath. “Him.” Arach squinted one eye closed as he tilted his head to scratch a particularly bothersome itch behind his left horn. “I do not fear him or anyone else for that matter. I am no longer the inexperienced lower demon Torin once battled.”
“I would much rather ye leave this place of your own accord, Arach. ’Twould be far better if ye made the choice willingly and passed through the magic without force. Ye have destroyed much in this world that I would’ve preferred ye left unharmed.”
Arach curled back his lips and released a warning blaze out across the choppy surface of the ocean. “I dinna give a damn about your druthers, Cailleach. Neither my existence nor my pleasures are any of your concern.”
A despondent sigh floated across the rising wind like a moaning echo through the caverns. “So it shall be then, wicked Arach. Ye leave me little choice.”
Arach allowed himself a gloating smile as he settled his leathery wings down into ratty folds across his spiked back. “Ye made yer choice centuries ago, old woman. ’Tis the price ye pay when dealing with the devil.”