Page 9 of Their World

“I’m not certain I can, but I’d like to try. It’s not like I could make things worse, right?” I gave him my best smile, but he still looked extremely skeptical.

Zoman pulled out a communication stone from his pocket and turned away, whispering to it. After several minutes, he turned back and said, “It will have to wait. The Grand Advisor is ready to see you now.”

Chapter

Three

Zoman led the way back down through the castle to the large meeting room. When we stepped inside, instead of being empty like it had been when we visited, it was full of humanoid demons All had horns, dark eyes, and a few had tails that moved back and forth in agitation.

Every single one in the room felt like a hybrid to me. Was it just a similarity? Or were they originally from our world?

Many gave me curious stares, while a few were openly glaring.

Jol stood beside an older looking demon with horns that curved up from the sides of his head. He wore a hooded top with the hood up and the horns coming out through holes in the hood. His grey beard was a few inches long and his eyes were slightly red. He sat in the chair on Jol’s right and tapped his finger impatiently.

“I apologize for the delay, Your Majesty, but we were on the roof when you notified me,” Zoman explained with a bow.

Jol stood and said, “Princess Liliana, please meet our Grand Advisor.”

So, he didn’t have a name? Just ‘Grand Advisor’? He was like our elders, it seemed.

The Grand Advisor held out his hand, palm down. I stared at it for a second, unsure what I was supposed to do. So, I shook it like I would anyone else’s hand.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I said with a warm smile. Through our joined hands, I felt a tingling sensation, a feeling that he was a hybrid like me, and something else … something dark, like a feeling of bloodlust.

He frowned at our joined hands, but raised his eyes and smiled. “We’ve been waiting a long time for you, Princess.”

“Yes, about that. I’d love to hear how it was decided that I was the one you wanted to speak to instead of one of the kings or queens and discuss possible solutions to all of this.”

“Sit,” Jol said and indicated the empty chair on his left, across from the Grand Advisor.

“We were debriefed on the fight that happened right before you were teleported,” Grand Advisor said. “Were those all of your strongest fighters? Or are there more who were not present?”

Really? He thought I was just going to give up all our secrets? Did he think I was a moron? I wasn’t a child, for goodness’ sake.

“We have a lot more,” I answered nonchalantly. “We didn’t call them as we didn’t deem it necessary.”

He scowled deeply, as did Jol.

“You could have been killed,” Jol said softly. “Had I wanted to, I could have crushed your head and they would not have been able to stop it.”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s what youthink, but you have no idea what they’re capable of, especially if it’s to protect their family.”

“What are they capable of?” Grand Advisor asked.

“Why haven’t you tried to open communication with us if you learned our language?” I asked instead of answering.

“It seems each time we tried, the people were not the ones we actually needed to communicate with,” Jol said. “They fled in terror or attacked as soon as we stepped out of the portal.”

“Did you go, or did one of the others in this room?” I asked and looked around the room.

They all shook their heads.

“You might have had better luck sending someone who looked more like us. I know that sounds incredibly racist, but the hellhounds and bull-men are frightening to the majority of my people. If you had stepped out of the portal, hands raised, and asked to speak to a king, they would have listened.”

“You don’t know that for certain,” one of them said.

“One of the hunters is incredibly vicious and likes to decapitate our people,” one of the others said.

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