“What the fuck are we going to do, Cas?”

Ell paced around the room, panic settling in as they were slowly cornered. The assassins sent by her siblings had been hunting them since they escaped the capital, but they have never been in such a hopeless situation. How had they arrived so quickly this time?

She went over to the window once more and peered out. They were all slowly but surely making their way towards the saloon, except for the one hiding in the shadows and the berserker on the street. Those two seemed content to let the others flush out the prey. Perhaps they were confident they could kill the rest of the hunters and claim the prize for themselves. That was not a comforting thought.

“At least they seem more interested in hiding from each other than rushing at us, for the moment at least.” Ell muttered.

Indeed, the groups of assassins seemed much warier of each other than their supposed targets. They held their hands at their sides, hovering over their sheaths. The whole town was locked into a tense standoff, the first to draw their blade would ignite the explosive situation. For now, they all edged towards the saloon, eyes darting about.

Cas stood up and drew his enormous five-foot blade, twirling it in the light.

“My Lady, I shall draw them off. You must flee!”

Cas’s eyes lit up at the thought of a heroic death, honourably defending his liege while cutting down swarms of assassins. The fool’s only desire seemed to be to die in the most spectacular fashion, leaving Ell to fend for herself.

“Don’t be daft. That berserker would crush you before you made your final heroic quip, and then he would come in here and crush me too. Just look at him, he probably crushes skulls as a bloody hobby! He has three bands Cas! What is a two band knight and a summoner going to do against that!”

Ell finished off her rant, and Cas looked suitably chastised. Or was he just disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to die heroically today? Bastard.

“So, what then, my Lady? I can see no way out of this.”

Ell picked up her pacing, urging her mind to concentrate. What could she do? She was just an amateur summoner. She hadn’t even contracted any beasts to fight for her yet. She could summon her horse and her pet dog, but that was it. She had never expected to need a beast to kill someone. That wasn’t what princesses did! They ate cakes, looked pretty and spread rumours destroying the reputations of courtly ladies, losing them everything! She didn’t actually kill people, they just ended up dead sometimes! This was so unfair.

Elle shook her head to clear the rampant thoughts clogging her attention and focused on the task at hand. So, she was surrounded by deadly assassins with no clear escape route. She could summon a horse to escape, but they would catch up quickly. She had Cas, but one knight wasn’t going to be able to fight against these odds, no matter how brave. She needed to something to even those odds. Something powerful. Something…….

“Cas, I have an idea, but you are really not going to like it.”

Cas’s eyes lit up again with hope.

“You have changed your mind about me sacrificing myself?”

Cas tried to speak in a controlled manner, but his giddiness leaked through regardless. Why did she get stuck with a knight with a death wish? Her siblings had such loyal and strong protectors, whereas all of hers but Cas had been bought off and attempted to chuck her into the river while she slept. Why they didn’t just stab her she would never understand. Perhaps they didn’t want to get their precious cloaks stained with blood.

“No Cas, you aren’t getting away from me that easily. What I meant was that I intended to summon a ………. demon.”

Cas drew back with a melodramatic gasp.

“Princess! Surely you jest! It is forbidden to summon a demon! They are vile horrible creatures that would surely slaughter us just as those assassins would!”

“Have you ever met a demon, Cas?” Ell retorted

“Well of course not, my Lady! How could you accuse me of cavorting with those abominations!”

“Well then how do you know they are all evil vile creatures? Surely you would have had to meet one to judge it so?” Ell asked. This took the wind out of Cas’s sails momentarily as he seemed to be befuddled as to why Ell was defending them so. He eventually found the right words to continue.

“The holy scripts, my Lady! The records of all those brave souls who have been sent by the gods to defeat them when they infect this world! All their evil deeds are recorded there!”

“Ah, but good and evil is just a matter of perspective, surely?”

“The records say they invented a sport using orphans heads as the ball!”

“Okay! I get it! They are twisted shits! I’m just trying to save our assess Cas! Who cares if the demon defiles a few assassins and hicks?! It’ll probably get its skull crushed by that human shaped demon berserker out there anyway!”

Ell breathed deep, trying to calm herself. She was panicking, she knew it, but she couldn’t stop it. She didn’t know if it was even possible for her to summon a demon in the first place. She had glanced over the hidden records in her father’s library, but never took a serious interest. Her memory was boosted by her progress along the summoner path, but she could only faintly remember the summoning spell. Her mind kept throwing in details from other spells she had half read long ago. She wished she could go back in time just to smack some sense into her younger self.

“We have to try it, Cas. I can’t see another way out. I’ll try to summon a weak one, we can use it as a distraction to escape!”

Cas grumbled, the only indication of the fierce clash in his mind between his faith and his desire to protect her. Or maybe a clash between his desire to be maimed and protecting her? The protecting Ell side eventually overcame the enemy and Cas nodded his assent, obviously not being able to bring himself to say anything.

“Now, watch the door and don’t say a word. Not a peep. I’m going to need all my concentration so that I don’t mess this up.”

What Ell wanted to say was that she needed all her attention so that she didn’t catastrophically fuck up and drag them all to hell, but she figured saying that wouldn’t help calm their nerves. She called what she could remember to the forefront of her mind. It wasn’t much. There was a passage about a ritual she had to perform and a chant to accompany it, but her younger self had only been interested in certain parts, like sections of the spell circle and the stranger phrases in the chant. She guessed what the complete summoning circle should look like and began drawing it on the wooden floor with the chalk she carried with her. She scribbled this way and that, every noise from downstairs making her hand shake with nerves.

She finished off and stood up. It was a chaotic mess. Some parts were drawn with drawn with all the care of an educated lady of the court, while others looked like a mad woman had scratched at the floor with her overgrown nails. Demons would appreciate a bit of madness, right? She drew her small knife and sliced her thumb, dribbling blood onto the circle.

“My Lady, I believe someone is heading up the stairs.” Cas whispered.

Ell decided that was good enough and wrapped her thumb in some bandage from the saddle bags. Now for the chant.

“By Azoth, Baloth, Lucius and eh…… the rest of the seven lords of hell! I plead to thee, aid me! Bind one of thine children to me! Blood for blood! Hocus pocus? Ala……….

“My Lady, they are getting closer!” Cas shouted, breaking Ell’s concentration.

“You colossal idiot! By Alsius’s hammer, I told you to shut up! Now we are all fucked!”

A purple energy began bubbling up from the floor, building up into a door that looked to be made of disembodied monstrous hands. The door swung open, revealing an empty swirling void into nothingness. A speck appeared in the void, rapidly coming closer. It grew and grew until Ell could just make out a man, right before he came flying out. He flew across the ground and smashed into the wall beside Ell, opening a hole to the room next to theirs. He groaned and began to sit up green eyes fluttering open. He looked around disorientated, before settling his gaze on Ell.

He certainly didn’t look like a demon. In fact, he looked like one of the pretty boys from the court who used to occupy her days. It made Ell irrationally dislike the newcomer.

“They heard that. Oh, they definitely heard that! Ell, hurry!” Cas said from the door.

Even if he wasn’t a demon, surely, he could still help them. Besides, he was in this together with them now. He was just as screwed as they were if those assassins reached them. Ell leaned over him and offered him a hand.

“Please, help us!” she pleaded.

The man-demon thing looked bemused by the words and the offered hand, but then a wicked smile spread over his face. He spat on his hand and then took hers, shaking it.

“Hello Ell, I am Bal. With this, the contract is sealed.”

The demon broke out into a laugh spliced with coughs, and Ell realised she had just done something incredibly stupid. If only she knew what.