The city was large. Three kilometers in diameter. Leo and Elizabeth pa.s.sed a blacksmith in a back alley and a florist on the main road that circled around the city. Leo decided to use the main road, because Elizabeth couldn"t handle the amount of demons that were following them plus the atmosphere of the alley. Leo felt bad for asking her to come with her. "But I can"t just send her home," he thought, "Not with all these demons following us." And it was true. In fact, beyond Leo"s comprehension, the amount of demons increased with each and every meter they walked. And by the time Leo sensed the sheer death all the demons exuded with each pa.s.sing moment, he noticed they now numbered in the hundreds through his magic perception--his ability to sense the forces of life and death.The streets were dirt. They pa.s.sed walkers and merchants and carts with people in them. They pa.s.sed a slave auction as the surroundings became nicer, and Leo couldn"t help but notice the similarities between Ahab"s city and his hometown in the mountains.
Leo said, "Where do you live?"
Elizabeth said, "In the slums, with my parents."
"Do you like it there?" he said and in the next moment thought, "What a stupid question!"
"Not really, she said. I have to hide from the demons most of the time... Raynark"s place though, I like going there every Sunday. Demons don"t show up at Raynark"s! I mean, Mr. Ray"s inn."
"Really..."
"Yeah," she said, "I don"t know why, but the demons don"t go into Mr. Ray"s place."
"No kidding," Leo said.
"Let"s talk about something else," she said.
"Fine," Leo said, figuring she didn"t want to talk about demons while they were being followed by demons, "What do you want to talk about?"
"Ummm," Elizabeth said, "Where are you from and what"s it like?"
"Let"s see," Leo said, a bit of trepidation in his voice, "I come from the seven mountains region."
"Where"s that?" she said.
"Well," Leo said, more comfortable, due to talking to a child, "I come from the Seven Mountains Region as I said, and I come from the tallest and grandest mountain of all, the Epoch Mountain."
"But where is it?" she said.
"It"s," Leo said, "far, far away. It lies past this prairie to the East. Past the lower hills and the minor mountains, up the frost trails and between the warm pillar called Albion. There lies the seven major mountains, and I lived on the tallest. Epoch mountain."
"That"s confusing. But really cool."
"Yeah it was pretty cool. It"s the most advanced civilization on the continent. In fact, we"re close to making a flying machine."
"Flying machine?"
"You know, like a bird, except humans will ride it."
"That"s so cool!" Elizabeth said.
"Yes very cool," Leo said with a chuckle.
"Can you take me there?"
Leo frowned.
Elizabeth noticed the frown and said, "You don"t have to take me there if you don"t want to..."
"No it"s not that!" Leo said, "I just... Have a problem there that can"t be fixed."
"Can"t all problems be fixed?"
"Not quite," Leo said, "It"s kind of like the demon problem here."
"No it"s not," Elizabeth said, "Raynark- I mean Mr. Ray said that Solomon would fix it all. No problem. No sweat."
"But Elizabeth," Leo said, "Thousands of demons don"t just go away just like that. in an instant. Not even Solomon in all his wisdom can solve that."
Elizabeth got angry, "You don"t know! You don"t know!"
"Elizabeth..."
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"Solomon will fix everything, just like Raynark said he would. You just gotta have a little bit of faith!"
"But Eliabeth... the demons---"
Elizabeth interrupted him, "The demons are following us right, ever since we left Raynark"s inn, right?"
"..."
"I know. I"ve lived here, and I believe in Solomon. I believe that his wisdom can save us."
Leo didn"t know what to say for a moment.
They walked in silence until Elizabeth said in a cheerful voice like nothing had happened, "Sorry about that. I get riled up sometimes.... Anyway if you look over there."
And so, Elizabeth showed Leo her favorite shops in the city. The shopkeepers looked at them with corpse-dead eyes, without any light of life, but Elizabeth pretended everything was normal. And that"s when Leo realized:
(Elizabeth knew the town was horrible. She dealt with demons everyday. She ignored their presence. She survived the mental stress of living with demons and horror and the stench of death everyday. She was just putting up a big facade, a false bravado to keep her sanity. And it was in that moment, that the clouds began to move, to tumble hard in the eyes of Leo. The sky was churning with gravitas. Death was coming in three days, and Solomon was working--planning his great destruction.)
So Leo pretended with Elizabeth. He laughed and played with her, while the demons increased. It seemed all the demons in the city had gathered around the two. Leo was worried, but he wasn"t about to crack and give in to despair before a child. Even if she was a strong child...
The prairie sky was darker than it was when Solomon and Leo first entered the city two days ago.
Trouble was brewing in the distance.