The Demon King's Hero Of Light 149 Chapter 149 Someone Needs A Drink

"Your Majesty!" cried both boys, crawling on the ground to grovel at her feet. "Please! We'll tell you anything you want to know! Please just get us away from these demons!"

"What happened?" she asked, looking up at Aella confused.

"She threw us into the air!" cried the black chinned boy.

"And we fell forever!" cried the blonde boy.

"I did not throw them," sighed Aella, rolling her eyes as if they were overreacting.

"I was the one who stabbed the demon!" cried the black-haired boy. "Please, take me to the dungeons! I would rather be there than in the air!"

"We were hired by the Angry Forge! They put us up to it by promising we could be members in their guild!" cried the blond boy, looking up at the princess with wild eyes.

"Have the two of you been deep in your cups again? I've told you to limit yourselves to only two mugs," said the princess, putting her hands on her hips and glaring down at them.

"It's true!" pleaded the black-haired boy. "If you go to the deepest forges, that are supposed to be abandoned, you'll find the alter they've erected to their smelting G.o.d!"

The look of disbelief faded from the princess's face and she ran her fingers through her beard as she looked down at the two young dwarves. "If what you say is true, then there is far more trouble going on than I thought. Who was it that invited you to the forge?"

"It was a guard named Dulgan," said the blonde boy quickly.

"Dulgan? But he's…" the princess turned quickly and her guard just behind her caught her look, nodded and rushed out of the room. "You two boys go to your aunt's house and wait for me there. No, it may be too dangerous. I'll have one of my guards escort you to my chambers. I'll question you further there. King Aella, I hope you don't mind, but it may be a bit longer before I can allow you to return to building your bar. This is much more serious than I had thought."

"We are fine, princess. I do hope that someone can see to feeding us soon, though. We had been working for quite a long time without having eaten or drinking anything," said Aella, withholding the smug expression that was trying to spill out.

"Of course," said the princess, motioning for her guard to grab the two boys and turning to leave once again. Her footsteps were much quicker than when she had first arrived.

"Do you want me to check on anything?" asked Alfred.

"No, I can't risk you being spotted. The dwarves obviously know that you have certain powers, and we can't risk losing what precious little gains we have managed to get. As soon as we finish this blasted bar, we can get the stone carvings and leave. How are you feeling Frederik?"

"A little weak, actually," he said, sounding surprised.

"I wonder if I could get by with fetching Josephine?" muttered Aella, glancing at Alfred.

Alfred moved to the door and listened before nodding to her to go. She had to move quickly, before anyone returned.

Josephine was bent over talking to a small child about not eating dirt, when Aella appeared, smiled at the child, who promptly broke out into screams of terror, grabbed the healer and teleported back to the dwarven city.

"What?" asked Josephine, looking around wildly. "You have got to stop doing this!"

"I think being the best healer in the world, you should get used to it," said Aella, pointing to Frederik.

With a sigh, Josephine stepped closer to him and placed a hand on his side, where faint traces of blood still lingered.

"He's been stabbed with a poisoned blade, but it appears that someone healed him and removed the vast majority of the poison," said Josephine after a moment.

"Can you tell me why he still feels poorly?" asked Aella, raising an eyebrow.

"The poison was really nasty and seems to have done quite a bit of damage. Whoever healed him, healed him before removing the poison, so the damage the poison caused after the healing but before being removed, is still there. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but this poison is particularly nasty."

"So, another heal should do it?" asked Frederik with a look of relief.

"The problem is, I can't heal it without reopening the wound," said Josephine, shaking her head.

"No problem," said Aella, pulling out her knife and stabbing Frederik again, before the demon could react.

Josephine only shook her head and sighed as Frederik struggled not to cry out with Aella's hand over his mouth. Pulling water out of thin air, she quickly sent it into the new wound and focused on healing the internal damage.

"This poison was meant to kill quickly. What has been going on here?" she asked looking up as the water seeped out of the wound and it closed up without a trace.

"Dwarven politics," grumbled Aella. "I'll take you back now."

Josephine raised an eyebrow of her own, but Aella had already grabbed her and teleported them both back, leaving her standing beside a bewildered and extremely traumatized child.

Once she returned to the room with Alfred and Frederik, Alfred returned to her side.

"You should have told her more," he admonished. "Now I'm going to have to explain things when we get back."

"Let her wonder," said Aella, watching as Frederik slowly climbed off the bed he had been laying on. "She has nothing to do with this, and can't add any input to the situation. I say, we return to the construction site and get everything finished. I'm tired of sitting around doing nothing. I have things to do and places to go."

"Right," sighed Frederik, moving his arm and wing around, testing for pain.

"If that's what you want to do," shrugged Alfred, turning back towards the door. "I'll lead the way."

Using her teleport, Aella was able to get them back to the construction site without being seen by any of the guards the princess had left to 'keep them safe'. Looking over the jumbled rocks still waiting to be moved into place, she smiled and looked around.

"You two keep a lookout for any dwarves and I'll make short work of this."

Alfred nodded, moving to one side of the pa.s.sage that came this way, while Frederik perked up at the thought of not having to lift heavy rocks anymore, and took the other pa.s.sage. Cracking her knuckles, Aella touched one of the rocks and teleported it into place, making sure it was flush to the other rocks. A few minutes later, she had the last of the wall in place and was lifting the door to attach it, when Alfred appeared next to her, to let her know dwarves were coming.

Glancing at the almost finished bar, Aella decided to go ahead and hang the door. The entire sh.e.l.l of the bar would be done and Bob could place his bar over the top of it, to fill it with proper dwarven furniture. Lifting the door up with a grunt, she slid the hinges together and shut the door with a click as the princess came around the bend.

"King Aella! What are you doing here!" she cried, looking at the finished bar.

"I understand you wanted me to wait until you had a chance to conduct your investigation, Princess, but I am a king who has many things yet to accomplish. Demons do not live as long as dwarves. Please forgive me for ignoring your request, but the bar is now finished, so I can be on my way."

There was indeed a small pop that came from inside, and the door opened just enough for a dwarven head to poke out.

"Perhaps you would like to discuss things over a pint of ale?" asked Bob, a smug look of satisfaction flas.h.i.+ng over his face as the princess almost growled in her annoyance.

"I did not give permission for him to have his bar here!" the dwarf almost screamed. It was obvious she was not happy about Aella finis.h.i.+ng the bar.

"You said we had to finish the bar for him to be able to move in, so I finished the bar," said Aella. "I figured it was up to the store owner to acquire furniture, and that was all that was left. We even had the bar itself already built, and the upstairs can be finished later, when everyone decides to allow him access to bedrooms and such."

"But you haven't gotten a permit for the bar yet!" she exclaimed, stomping her foot on the floor.

"And how much does that cost?" asked Aella, crossing her arms. "You seem to be far too upset over me finis.h.i.+ng a project you allowed me to start. Could it be that you didn't want me to finish? Are you the one behind my regent being stabbed?"