Page 80 of Hell-Bound

I’m busy!

Fair enough, pet. I’d rather hear you screaming my name under different circumstances, anyway.

“You are so predictable,” Jester hissed, swatting the air in front of his face to keep the smoke away.

The large space was almost completely abandoned, save for two Lesser Devils patrolling a large pool of water. A sheen of steam languidly swirled around its surface. The effect enhanced the vurmite’s already wondrous glimmer.

“You need to incapacitate one of them,” Jester whispered matter-of-factly.

“Sorry—I need towhatthem?”

Jester made a strangling motion with his hands and then stuck his tongue out. “Incapacitate!”

Ren just blinked at him.

“Jester, I’m not sure I even know how todothat.”

Jester put his hands on his hips, “I can’t take them both down without alerting every guard in this place. So figure it out, Elfy!”

He vanished, appearing several feet from the pool of water, and ducked behind a stalagmite.

Crouched down and unmoving, Ren wracked her brain.

Incapacitate—not kill.

She felt something—a small prod of encouragement from near her waistband. Without thinking, she reached down and touched her piccolo—it was warm under her fingers. She slid it out of its holster to examine it, still not understanding its mysterious language.

She cautiously raised it to her mouth, hoping that it would give her another signal as to her next steps. The old piccolo seemed to sigh as it grazed her lips softly. Ren heard it—a melody ringing in her ears, pushing to be released.

Lost in her contemplation, she hadn’t at first noticed the loudcrackof rock from where Jester was hiding. It was only when the two Lessers spun on their heels that the echo ricocheted back to her.

“Fuuuuck,” she heard Jester groan as the two hulking guards barreled toward him.

She fumbled with her piccolo, almost dropping it. Her memory haunted her with the images of an injured Jester in the forest of Nahmir and the sounds of him gasping for air.

Not him, no. Come for me.

Shaking from panic, she lifted her piccolo to her lips, hoping the distraction would give Jester some time. While Ren’s heart felt urgent, the song came out as hushed, barely audible as it sang sweetly through the cavern.

Three sets of eyes shot in her direction, Jester’s face twisted in disbelief.

“What are you doing over there!” a gray-skinned Lesser bellowed, altering his course.

The other, teal-skinned, continued toward Jester.

Ren didn’t stop playing. While her mind raced with ways to escape, her body remained relaxed, begging her to stay calm andplay. To keep her breathsteady.

She watched as Jester leaped over the stalagmite, readying himself for a fight as the teal Lesser sprinted forward. And then, he tripped, falling to one knee, cursing. The gray one also faltered, wavering on his feet before falling face-first into the rocky ground with athud. They both clambered to regain their footing but were unable to lift their heavy bodies.

The teal Lesser put his hand on his forehead, blinking rapidly, while the other leaned for support on a protruding boulder.

Jester stood unmoving in the corner of the room, eyes wide.

Ren, just as confused, kept playing, afraid that any pause in her efforts would halt the piccolo’s mysterious effects. So the melody continued, rebounding off the walls, sounding as if she was playing her own duet.

The two Lessers grunted with strain before falling utterly prone, unable to regain their stance. Their movements became slower. The gray Lesser was still fighting the effects, reaching his arms forward to drag himself in a desperate attempt to reach Ren and stop her playing, but his arms weren’t cooperating. With every note played, their movements became less and less noticeable—a finger twitch here, a head tilt there, until eventually, they ceased altogether.

Seeing her two victims completely subdued and with a slight thrum of satisfaction from her instrument, Ren felt safe enough to finish her song. She paused as the last notes sang through the cavern, waiting anxiously for any recovery from the Devils.

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