The sound of laughter filled the room, both Belasco’s and the demon’s. The demon’s was hate-filled and bitter, while Belasco’s was genuine amusement. “I don’t really know,” said the motionless magic-user. “Lying is as much a part of the demon nature as it is mine, dear brother.

“When I first began to dabble with summoning it was for the usual reason; I wanted to better you. I tried to kill Sidi once by creating a litch, did you know?”

“No,” said Amirantha.

“It wasn’t well conceived, really. Too much emphasis on irony and not enough on learning the craft. Sidi quickly disposed of the monster and I spent the better part of a year living in a very cold cave up in the Northlands, surrounded by ice bears, snow leopards, dark elves, and not a lot to eat.” He sighed, more an emotional footnote than any real exhalation of breath. “You’d think I might have learned, but I really didn’t.

“With you I decided to not just conjure up a random demon and turn him loose on you, as I knew you’d easily better it, but I thought I could subvert one of your spells so that you would summon in something you didn’t expect. I thought that was very clever.”

“It almost worked,” said Amirantha.

“Almost?”

“I had help. Had I been alone, I would have perished.”

“Well, that’s some sort of consolation.” He paused, then said, “To learn enough to do that I began studying demon lore, much of it familiar to you I assume. But I did find a few odds and ends, a scroll here and a book there that made it clear that there was far more to the demon realm than you suspected. I wasn’t doing this for scholarship, really. I was looking for a very clever way to kill my brothers.”

Gulamendis looked at Belasco and then at Amirantha and just shook his head. Sandreena kept her eyes fixed on Amirantha’s face.

Amirantha said, “The Demon War?”

“Something is driving the demons. Something has come into their realm and is struggling with them for supremacy in their own realm,” said Belasco. “Millions of demons have been destroyed in the struggle and three of the kings have united to oppose the invaders.”

“Who?” asked Amirantha.

“I don’t know,” replied Belasco. “I only hear vague references to ‘them,’ or ‘the invaders.’ One time I heard ‘from the darkness.’ Other than that, they are a force that has destroyed the order, such as it was, of the Fifth Circle.

“Of the two kings who did not ally, one took a wait-and-see position, my friend here, Dahun.”

That brought a sound of snarling but no coherent speech.