“Listen,” said Melancthe. “You’re a nice imp, aren’t you? What’s your name?”
The imp beamed with pleasure. It clearly didn’t get many compliments. “Ghish!” It said, proudly.
“Ghish, did Kohorn tell you about how he was planning the ritual?”
“Sure!” Said the imp. “I’ve even helped him set it up! He has a Belthzer Portal to summon Jhexxys, and those are mighty rare. I don’t know where he got that. Next to it he has a stone alter, which he brought in for you especially. Used his magic to get it into the room fortunately, it must weigh a tonne! He has chains and manacles fastened to it so you can be bound to it nice and tight. He spent a lot of time making sure that those chains fasten tightly! He even...”
“Enough about that!” Melancthe’s face was pale. “What else?”
“Well, then there’s the Ring of Protection. Its drawn in a mix of herbs around the alter and the Belthzer Portal. It stops Jhexxys from just eating Kohorn the minute he arrives.”
Melancthe’s mouth was dry. “Does he have any failsafes?”
“Well, not exactly, although I imagine that he’d have some of his wands on him. Those are mighty powerful artifacts - shooting lighting, bazzaaam! And ice, shhhhhatazz! Very exciting. Not sure they’d do much good against a demon, but you never know. And maybe he’ll take Rhana with him. She can be pretty creepy.”
“Rhana?”
Somewhere in the tower, a bell began ringing, interrupting them.
“Hey, that’s my cue! Time to go get you from your room.” The imp paused, puzzled. “And how am I supposed to do that if you’re in the library, exactly? Kohorn just never thinks these things through! I’d better go and ask him how to handle that.”
“No!” Said Melancthe quickly. “I’ll go back to my room and you can then take me to the experiment room. That way you still do what you were told.”
She thought hard for a minute. |