Tak

The Conjuration - Part 7

     Tak looked beseechingly at Molos Gomm, but his master only seemed annoyed by the young boy's appearance. "Transform!" he commanded, his magically amplified voice making the very walls shake. "I command you! Transform!"

     The boy vanished, and in his place stood a naked girl, no more than fifteen years old. Full bodied and beautiful. A girl who should have been an innocent but whose every sinuous movement and leering glance spoke of a worldly knowledge beyond that of the most ancient pox ridden whore.

     "Is this more to your liking?" she purred, fluttering her eyes at Molos Gomm while she reached her perfect hands between her legs and opened herself to him. "Come on, big man! Help yourself to a little slice of heaven!"

     "Transform!" commanded Molos Gomm again, but although the girl winced a little, as if in pain, her appearance remained unchanged. It wasn't a girl at all, Tak now realised. It was Vassago, trying to distract them into making a fatal mistake by presenting them with alluring images, or at least what the demon thought they would find alluring.

     She was examining each of them in turn now, passing over Molos Gomm and Gal-Gowan with only a cursory glance. She spent a little longer looking at Philip, but finally settled on Tak as the youngest and most vulnerable. The deceptively beautiful apparition sauntered over to the edge of the barrier, as close as she could get to the staring teenager, and paraded herself before him, stroking her inner thighs with slender, long fingered hands. "I want you," she purred, staring straight into his popping eyes.

     Tak had to struggle to remember the words of the formula. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead and a hard erection pushed out the front of his robe, so hard it was painful.

     "I can give you pleasures you cannot imagine," murmured the apparition, followed by a long, lingering moan of passion. "I can..."

     "Transform!" roared Molos Gomm again, thrusting the sword into the nearest brazier.

     The girl screamed in agony and vanished. In its place was something dark and awful, something whose form and appearance Tak was never sure of afterwards except that it had blood red horns and great bat wings and eyes that burned like windows into Hell. It glared at Molos Gomm and the wizard glared back, facing it down. It was big! Tak couldn't believe how big it was. So big it didn't seem possible that it could fit in the room. The awful head seemed to tower over them like a dragon over a mouse. It seemed ridiculous to imagine that four mortal men could hope to contain such a thing. It seemed that it only had to flex its mighty shoulders to tear the castle apart like a pile of eggboxes. Another illusion, thought Tak in near panic. It's still trying to trip us up.

     Molos Gomm seemed satisfied with this form, though, even if it still wasn't the demon's true form. "Vassago, by the pact between us you are bound to obey me. I summoned you and you came. I commanded and you obeyed. Now I command you again. You will give truthful answers to our questions. You will make no attempt to deceive us, either by omission or volunteering what is unasked for. I command and you obey."

     "You command for now," conceded the demon, its voice like the grinding of great blocks of stone far below the earth, "but you are old and the hour fast approaches when you will leave this life and find yourself in my dominion. A few short years. A mere beat of the heart for one who counts the passing eons..."

     "Silence!" commanded Molos Gomm furiously, but there was a trace of fear in his voice as well, as if he recognised the truth of the demon's words. "You will speak no more except to answer the questions of Gal-Gowan." He turned to look at the visiting wizard, signifying that he could now take over.