Page 31 of Demonic Cage
Sylla and Léthé walk side by side towards a suddenly revealed cave, while Kripot and Hépotis leave via another. Darya spreads his wings wider. In the light from above, I clearly see the pale-yellow membranous scales and the powerful dark lines of its solid contours. The frame of the bat wing is as pure black as soot and as graceful as its wearer. Beautiful and dangerous. He doesn’t look at me, just flies away. I’m left alone with Nárs.
The demon licks his lips and grins so frighteningly that I would rather run away. I have no desire to go anywhere with this madman.
“I can wait, Little Flower.” He smiles while reaching out a hand towards me. “But for your own sake, I recommend you don’t stay alone for too long!” He places his hand on his heart and feigns pain. “Don’t stray far from me!”
I sigh. No one here is normal.
He hugs me so quickly that I try to step back, but he holds me effortlessly with muscular arms that didn’t change during the transformation.
“Don’t move so much, Lily Girl!” he says, pushing me towards the door. “The Kraldem was right. I’ll only taste you when you ask.”
With his rough tongue, he licks my ear, then drags me into the darkness of a newly revealed cave.
“Come on, Little Flower! There’s no need to take everything so seriously!” Nárs’s voice reverberates sharply against the red mud walls. I desperately try to wipe his saliva off my ear.
“Don’t touch me!” I growl at him. He lifts his hands in submission.
“Alright, alright! But follow me and don’t lag behind. So, you have met Léthé before?” he continues, vigorously gesturing with his hand. “Not many survive, you know, if she doesn’t fancy them. That’s what they say nowadays, right? If you don’t like someone? Fancy?”
He stops, puts his hand on my shoulder, his gaze filled with a sincere curiosity that leaves me stuttering.
“Uh… I think so.”
He takes his hand off me.
“I like to stay up to date. You know, to understand everyone’s language,” he explains, before continuing briskly. “So, Léthé is a witch.” He nods at me slyly, as if expecting me to do the same. “Of course, witches don’t exist. I just know that you guys use this term for bad people, although everyone here is considered a bad person according to your standards. If I were you, I’d stay away from her, although I think she’s afraid Darya will kick her out of bed if she harms you.”
So, I was right. She is jealous of me.
“A piece of advice. Wait, let’s be friends first?” he asks, taking my hand in his. “Good advice from a good friend.Don’t look Sylla in the eye! She amplifies all your dark desires. Until you go crazy. It tortures you. Of course, sometimes I beg her to do this to me for hours!”
I regard our intertwined hands intensely until Nárs lets go.
“Oh, forgive me, Little Flower. There should not be actual contact, right?”
During the rest of our walk through the tunnel, his speech is inconsistent. He talks about whether I’ve seen Kripot, and how beautiful he is. We don’t move forward until I nod in agreement.
On one of our many stops, he reaches for the straps attached to his thighs, unlocks one compartment, and takes out a fan made of metal. As he unfolds it, I see the spreading spikes of the extended weapon.
“Of course, that foolish Lizander would only use his knives,” he grumbles, fanning himself. “He likes you, you know? Although he’ll never admit it to you.”
“And when is he coming back?”
Nárs pouts.
“If you want to be with him, then you’ll have to wait until tomorrow. I’ll let him sleep until then, but he knows that the Kraldem needs me now, not the boring war counselor.”
“I didn’t find him boring.”
The edges of Nárs’s mouth tremble, and his facial features soften for a moment, but the next moment, it’s as if nothing happened.
“Histhoughtsalone are enough to rock me to sleep!” he says disdainfully, rolling into genuine anger. “Just strategy. Thinking. Plans. Seriousness. Ah! Here we are!”
We arrive at a thick door. Nárs opens it, and the pleasant chirping of birds welcomes us in the poison-green vine-covered park. We are outdoors. Green plants weave through the spacelike snakes, accompanied by narcissus. So, this is where my bath oil comes from.
Sharp rock walls stretch around the area like a hand holding the piece of land. I can’t see to the end. The blue sky is beautiful and in the distance, appearing as black dots, fly bats – or demons, perhaps.
It’s as if we’ve arrived in the middle of an oasis; the sun shines white, not as yellowish as would be natural to me. Green vines tightly surround statues that seem to be a thousand years old. In some places, only parts of the carvings are visible.
