“He’s heavy,” Roman eyed her suspiciously. “You can’t carry him and he’s too heavy to lean onto you the whole way. You’ll have to run to fetch Amelie and bring her back here, as quickly as you can. Can you do it?”
“I think so,” Bella nodded.
Roman eyed the boys, then Bella again.
“It’ll have to be you,” he told her. “I can’t spare any of the boys. Now that Sorwyce won’t be there, it’ll be a helluva lot more difficult than we had planned. I need them to tie Rannulf down and keep him subdued. Now, go, run!” he ordered Bella and in a second, she was out of there.
“Roman,” Sorwyce whispered, his strength leaving him slowly but surely, “in my pocket…”
A fit of coughing prevented him from continuing but Roman knew what he meant. He reached into Sorwyce’s pocket, and extracted a small bag of dried plants. To Eva, it looked like the same thing Amelie gave her when she was at her place.
“Put it… in his… mouth…” Sorwyce lowered his head.
“Hang on, my friend,” Roman tried to help him, to make him as comfortably as he could be, under the circumstances. “Help is coming.”
“Go… you don’t have much time before Xol’gorog finds out what happened,” Sorwyce urged them, coughing again.
“We have to go,” Roman told the rest of them. “Our job isn’t finished yet.”
Chapter 26
They snuck into the main building, tiptoeing their way up the stairs, to the quarters where Rannulf lived. The door was heavy, with intricate details on the sides. When Roman pressed the handle, he realized it was locked.
“Allow me,” Sebastian pushed through, as he was standing behind everyone else.
He turned to Eva, and got so close to her, that she thought he was going to kiss her right then and there. Her heart leapt, even though that was the last thing they should be doing right now. However, instead of kissing her, he cupped her cheeks, lowered her head, and extracted a hair pin, long and black. He straightened it out, pushed it into the keyhole, jiggled the lock a little, and then, everyone heard a barely audible click, which meant that the door was open.
“Nice work,” Frey whispered.
“Shh!” Roman shushed them both.
Everyone walked in slowly, one behind the other. There were several rooms in this long corridor, but all the doors were closed. Eva knew they wouldn’t be able to check all the doors, before Rannulf woke up and realized that they were here.
Roman pressed his finger to his lips, and she could see him smelling the air. She tried it herself. At first, there was nothing. Just the smell of a centuries old house, with musty walls and leaky windows. Nothing else. But, as she focused harder, she could sense something. At first, only faint traces of something she couldn’t identify yet, but then, the smell became stronger. It was putrid, disgusting. The smell of a dead body. That was the smell of creatures from Hell and here on Earth, there was no force which could make them get rid of it. That was the only indication others had of realizing they were there.
Roman lowered his hand and pointed at the third door on the left. They all followed him. Roman placed his hand on the doorknob and took a deep breath. He opened the door slowly, trying not to make a single sound. Everyone waited on, in anticipation. Silence reigned. Not even breathing was heard.
When Roman finally opened the door, Rannulf was sitting on the bed. His eyes were gleaming red, staring at them with a hatred that threatened to burn the house down.
Roman jumped at him immediately, pinning him down onto the bed, holding him with the weight of his own body.
“Quickly, the ropes!” Roman shouted.
Eva took off the small rucksack which was resting on her back. She took out the ropes, and everyone grabbed one leg or hand and tied it to the bed.
“You can’t harm me, Roman Miles!” the demon hissed in Rannulf’s voice. “You are all dead! You just don’t know it yet! Hahahahaha!”
The evil laughter reverberated throughout the room and, for a second, Eva stopped what she was doing to look at it.
“Don’t look at it!” her father shouted. “Avert your eyes!”
Eva immediately lowered her head, and made sure she tied his left hand firmly to the bed. Then, she made another knot, just in case. A few moments later, everyone moved away, looking at the squirming body on the bed.
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“Don’t look at it!” Roman repeated to everyone, taking the satchel out of his bag and shoving the dry herbs into the demon’s mouth, then keeping it firmly closed with his hand. “Quickly, the book! Page 5!”
Eva immediately gave him the little black book, which she was keeping safely in her backpack. The sides of its pages were scorched, as if the book had survived a fire but the letters were still legible. Roman held the demon’s mouth shut and started reading: