Into the Abyss

The woman called Jehenna raised her right hand before her; in it she held a ring. Softly she began chanting something that Thomas couldn’t make out. Before his eyes, he almost seemed to perceive the green smoke rings that he had seen the other day. “... by the ancient rites we command thee, be unto us our slave. Let they who hold this ring control thy fate as surely as Lenamare the Magnificent. Ek rios et veltos dok run se falos.” At this point Lenamare and the old man joined in. “Rieman et sveltos, kriolbus nek vistrum, Dominae set servitus. Creistes, sen feltos. Rhiallan mak velddrum. Nor fiels sans bartos, kryptos nos vermumn. Thou art ours, thou art ours.”

Now Lenamare spoke alone, “by the power of my will, by which I command thee, Tomasedwardperkinje, I hereby relegate my authority to the wielder of this ring. Let the wielder’s command of thee be second only to my own. Let all know that today, as forever, thou art bound. Bound by my will, and bound by this ring. May thy soul be trapped in the Neverending Loop of Confinement, ad verti sig fallum. Dros Faustus tan Varn, sid Ekelios, fel Mephistum.”

Together they all chanted, “Embodiae sig fallum, Dominae sed nostrum, deskripten sig fallum, verti et sebuam. Bound unto forever Tomasedwardperkinje, hielphistos sorbum amenetorum.” With the final pronouncement, the ring flashed a bright white light. Tom felt his pupils automatically contract to block the light, but other than that he felt absolutely nothing.

The three wizards stared at Tom intently, as if trying to determine something. Jehenna put the ring on the middle finger of her right hand and pointed it at Tom. He winced, fearing that more pain was coming, although none did. His reaction apparently satisfied her, for she nodded. “Demon,” she said, “kneel before me.”

Not really knowing what was going on, but not really wanting to feel the pain that Lenamare had already inflicted, specifically, not wanting to test whether or not he could face it down again, he complied. Again, seeming satisfied, she nodded.

“Any other tests?” Lenamare asked.

“No, I think we’ve demonstrated that it works,” Jehenna said. The old man simply nodded his head in agreement with Jehenna.

“Very well then, Jehenna, if you would care to do the honors?”

“Certainly,” Jehenna waved her arms toward Tom and said, “be gone now, Demon; get thee hence, return to thy own plane until we should have need of thee. Depart in peace, and take none that is ours with you.” At this apparent dismissal, Tom relaxed, knowing he would soon be out of this tower and away from these people. As he relaxed and imagined his ledge, the tower room began to disappear around him. Shortly, he was once again standing outside his new cave.

Chapter 11

“God, those people really piss me off,” Tom said to himself as he looked out from his cave, “with their mixed up thee’s and thou’s and their pseudo-Latin mumbo jumbo.” Slowly he turned around and descended into the cave to explore it. “Would I like to show them a thing or two.” As he descended, he thought about this last encounter; and the more he thought about it the angrier he got. Just as in any confrontation situation, where one feels one is the loser, Tom replayed all different scenarios, envisioning how things might have gone. If only he could have broken the barrier, if only he had thought of this, of that, of several different things.

He wandered down the cave, thinking of all the things he might do next time, to teach Lenamare and his toadies a lesson. He let out a lot of mental steam and frustration, knowing he’d probably never get a chance to exercise his dreams of vengeance. It was, he thought, just like the bullies; he had dreamed and dreamed of someday getting even, but he never did, and now never would. The closest he’d ever come to doing anything about the bullies in Junior High had been to take Tae Kwon Do lessons for over a year, before giving them up out of laziness. Occasionally he berated himself for not going further, only a few more months and he’d have had a black belt, but he’d gotten mad at people in the club and decided he didn’t want to put up with the lessons and a few of the other students.