The Corvin Chance Chronicles Complete Box Set

by N. P. Martin

  Margaret’s voice was deep and resonant as she continued to speak the words to the evocation. She sounded powerful and in control, which helped to offset my fear and lack of confidence in this particular situation. As she went on, her voice got louder and more intense, and pretty soon, it felt the whole room was rattling, the walls shaking, the floor vibrating as if it was going to break apart under our feet. The candles surrounding us also began to flicker wildly as a wind started to blow through the room, a wind that had seemingly come from nowhere. The energy in the air, which formally had only crackled slightly, was now beginning to manifest as reddish electricity that was mostly concentrated over the other smaller magic circle. My eyes became drawn to the circle and what was beginning to manifest there. As the energy flashed in the air, it would illuminate the outline of something, a figure that was barely perceptible at first. But as Margaret suddenly stopped speaking, the figure in the far circle became gradually more solid as if it was being beamed in from somewhere else, which I suppose it was in a way.

  From Hell.

  "Dath'tauth!" Margaret shouted, now speaking in English and seeming to be in some sort of trance as her body bucked wildly. "Hear me! I command you to manifest yourself so that you may do our bidding!"

  Fuck this, I thought as fear gripped me tighter in its cold hand. This is the last thing I expected to be doing when I woke up this morning.

  Before me, the demon—who I assumed was Dath'tauth—had now fully manifested within the circle, the reddish energy continuing to crackle around it, arcing of its (his?) body in places. His mere presence made me feel sick with fear, never mind what he looked like. He resembled a human in that he had two arms, two legs and a head, but there the resemblance to anything human stopped, especially since he appeared to be over seven feet tall. From the neck down, his body was pure black, appearing to be covered in something that could have been leather, but was more likely some ghastly material only to be found in Hell. Whatever it was, it had a dull sheen to it, and appeared to be patched together. Sticking out of the demon’s body were long, thick nails which seemed to randomly pierce him all over. As I stared, I could feel the great physical pain he was in thanks to the nails in his body, but I could also sense the undeniable pleasure the demon took from the pain. It was sick and twisted and made me feel like throwing up. Dath'tauth’s head was the only thing about him that wasn’t pitch black. From what I could make out, his features were human, but his eyes were missing, leaving two dark, empty sockets that somehow still allowed him to see. Thick nails also seemed to be jammed into his skull, including one that went through both temples, and another that went from under his chin and right through his mouth, securing it in an open position, out of which the longest tongue I have ever seen lolled around like the head of a serpent. I could do nothing else but stare at him, unable to turn away until Margaret shouted at me.

  "Corvin! Focus! The circle!"

  Shaking my head slightly as if waking from a trance, I swallowed and then began to direct my magic toward the circle that Dath'tauth was standing within, and as I did, it appeared to glow slightly as if it was now charged up. For his part, Dath'tauth just stood there unmoving, seeming massively tall and effortlessly intimidating, causing me to think that if he represented the demons who populated Hell, then I had no wish to ever go there.

  "Can you hear me, Dath'tauth?" Margaret said, still sounding as confident as she did when she spoke the evocation. She didn’t seem scared at all, or perhaps she was just better at hiding her fear than I was.

  When Dath'tauth finally spoke, his voice was as deep as I expected, but it also sounded watery, as if there was some strange filter in his throat, which only served to unnerve me more. "Why do you summon me here?" he asked, his long fingers twitching by his side.

  "We want possession of an artifact that resides in Hell," Margaret answered. "We command you to retrieve it for us."

  Dath'tauth laughed, a sound that made my bowels loosen. "We?" He turned his head so that his hollowed out eye sockets were now on me. "The boy is afraid. Do you fear me, boy?"

  When I said nothing, Margaret said, "Answer him."

  To be honest, I didn’t know what to say. Was this some sort of trick question or was he just fucking with me? "No," I ended up saying. "I don’t fear you."

  As soon as I said it, a huge nail shot from his body and embedded itself into the floor about an inch from my foot, causing me to jump back in shock. Dath'tauth laughed at my reaction. "I thought you said you don’t fear me?"

  "Enough!" Margaret said. "You have been summoned, Dath'tauth, which means you must do as we ask."

  Dath'tauth looked at Margaret as he walked close to the edge of the circle, as if trying to get closer to us. "You command of me something I cannot do, witch. Demons are forbidden from taking objects from Hell to this world."

  "You lie, demon," Margaret said.

  "You mean how you lie to yourself when you tell yourself the girl’s death was not your fault?" he said.

  Frowning, I looked at Margaret to see that she was rattled for the first time. "Shut your filthy mouth!" she said. "You know nothing!"

  "The girl was possessed, was she not?" Dath'tauth said, seeming to enjoy his taunting. "You tried to exorcise the demon, but you failed because you weren’t strong enough."

  "Shut up!" Margaret was quivering now, her former composure now cracking.

  "You knew you weren’t strong enough. Why did you do it, Margaret? Was it because you thought you were more powerful that you were?"

  Margaret was shaking her head now. "It wasn’t my fault, the demon it…tricked me."

  "A more capable exorcist wouldn’t have allowed themselves to be tricked," Dath'tauth went on. "You could’ve asked for help, but you didn’t you, did you? Your narcissism made you carry on alone, and that poor little girl died. What age was she again, Margaret?"

  Tears were running down Margaret’s face now. Whatever strength had gotten her this far had all but gone, taken from her by Dath'tauth. Using my anger to combat the fear in me, I stood in front of Margaret to directly address Dath'tauth myself. "Enough of this," I said as boldly as I could. "We didn’t bring you here to play mind games, Dath'tauth. We require The Mirror Of Infernal Darkness, and you will tell us how to get it."

  Dath'tauth’s smile was twisted as his unseemly long tongue emerged from the side of his mouth to lick the nail that was sticking out of his cheek. Then he said, "The boy has found his balls."

  "I’m commanding you!"

  "Very well. If it is the mirror you seek, then I will help you get it, just as long as you know what that means."

  I frowned at him as he laughed to himself. "What does it mean?"

  "If you want the mirror, you must come with me to Hell to get it."

  My jaw dropped slightly upon the mention of Hell. Jesus Christ, was he serious? He wanted me to go to Hell with him? "No, there must be another way."

  Before Dath'tauth could answer, feedback entered the room and Delaney’s voice came over the loudspeaker. "The demon speaks the truth, Mr. Chance," he said, sounding like he was enjoying seeing me squirm. "To get the mirror you must go to Hell to get it."

  I shook my head as Delaney’s laughter echoed around the room. "You bastard," I said. "You knew this all along, didn’t you?"

  "Of course," Delaney said.

  "No way am I going to Hell for you, Delaney."

  "What about your friend, Dalia, then? Do you want her to die?"

  "You’re bluffing. She would kill whoever you sent after her anyway."

  "Oh really? So if I sent a pack of vicious werewolves to the North Circular Road, they wouldn’t rip her apart along with her friend Davey?"

  I gritted my teeth as I stared out into the gloom, my guts twisted with anger and frustration, my mind conflicted. Even if he was bluffing, which I didn’t think he was, I couldn’t take the chance. I knew Dalia could handle herself, but taking on a whole pack of werewolves at once? I simply couldn’t do that to her.


  "Your master has spoken," Dath'tauth said, sounding like he was enjoying the proceedings as much as Delaney was.

  "He’s not my master," I said through gritted teeth. "And just so we’re clear, Dath'tauth, neither are you."

  "Go with him to Hell, Mr. Chance and get me what I want," Delaney said. "After that we’re even."

  "Corvin, no," Margaret said. "You can’t do this."

  I turned around to face her, noticing how out of her depth she looked now. Dath'tauth had really got to her. Taking her hand in mine, I squeezed it tight. "The first chance you get," I whispered. "You get out of here, you hear me?"

  She nodded, saying nothing as I let her hand go. Then I turned around and walked out of the magic circle toward Dath'tauth, stopping just outside the circle he stood within. "I’m commanding you to protect me," I said to him, feeling ridiculous even saying it to such an entity that could rip me apart in seconds if he so desired, but these kind of interactions had their rules like everything else. The evocation had his full obedience written into it. The only good thing about this debacle was that Dath'tauth was compelled to do as I said. That was the only thing that allowed me to step inside that circle with him, and as I did, Dath'tauth laughed.

  "Hell awaits you, boy…"

  Chapter 7

  My heart was hammering madly against my chest as I stood next to Dath'tauth within the circle, causing me to breath rapidly like I’d just ran a three minute mile. All around us, reddish energy crackled loudly, growing more dense at it seemed to envelope everything. The last time I felt such nervous anticipation was the one and only time I rode a rollercoaster. Sitting at the top of that slope while I waited with a sniggering Dalia on the inevitable drop had terrified me. I felt much the same now. The only thing that allowed me to contain myself was Margaret’s face as she stood with both hands over her mouth, looking like she’d had just about all she could take. For her, I tried not to look as terrified as I felt, which was difficult when you were standing beside a seven foot demon staring down at you like he was considering just breaking your neck.

  A high-pitched humming sound that I hadn’t heard on Dath'tauth’s arrival now began to sound as the energy around us became further agitated. Even the floor beneath my feet felt like it was going to cave in at any second, leaving me to drop into some endless abyss.

  As I felt my body begin to heat up with all the energy surrounding me, the last thing I heard before being sucked into some sort of rift in time and space, was Delaney’s voice, sounding distant and far away, but still legible. "Enjoy the ride, Mr. Chance…"

  And what a ride it was. If I thought the rollercoaster was bad, this was a hundred times worse. I had no idea of where I was, only that it felt like I was trapped inside a washing machine on full spin, all the while having the sickening sensation of falling at unimaginable speed. The forces exerted on me were so great that I think I must’ve lost consciousness, but not before it felt like every molecule in my body was being pulled in a different direction.

  At some point after blacking out, I opened my eyes again to find that I was lying on a hard floor, but I still had the horrible falling sensation and I gripped the floor tight, shutting my eyes as I waited on a crash landing that would never come.

  "We are here."

  The deep, distorted voice forced me to open my eyes, just as my power of thought seemed to rush back in all at once, bringing with it a tidal wave of emotions that immediately made me vomit on the floor next to me. "Oh Jesus…" I said, coughing and spluttering as I fought to regain whatever composure I had before being dumped into that whirling vortex or whatever it was.

  "Jesus can’t help you," Dath'tauth said. "You’re in Hell."

  Hell? Oh my God…

  It was all I could do raise my head to see what surrounded me. As I finally stood up, I realized I was standing on a stone floor, inside the biggest passageway I had ever seen. The walls were so high that they just didn’t end, instead fading out into the darkness above. Lengthwise, the passageway seemed to stretch for miles, with some sort of natural light—like a very pale moonlight—illuminating most of it. Dark entryways were cut into the stone walls the whole way down.

  "It’s so…quiet," I said almost to myself.

  "In certain places," Dath'tauth said. "This is one of them. You are in the Great Labyrinth."

  "A labyrinth? What’s at the center?"

  Dath'tauth stared down at me with sightless eyes. "Would you like to see? I can show you."

  I shook my head immediately. "No, I don’t think so."

  "You humans, you are always so afraid."

  "I think my fear is justified in this case," I said, finally recovered from the wild ride here.

  "Hell is not what you think," Dath'tauth said, beginning to walk away, just as I heard a loud rumbling noise in the background. "I advise you to hurry, by the way, if you don’t want to be mince meat soon."

  Hardly able to believe I was running to catch up with a demon, I did so with a renewed fear as I wondered what he was talking about. "Is something coming? What’s that noise?"

  "The Grinder."

  I didn’t like the sound of that at all, especially since it sounded like some great machine was rapidly coming toward us, the noise echoing loudly off every wall. "The Grinder?" I shook my head as I looked behind me, straining my eyes to see into the distant gloom, and as I looked, something soon started to manifest out of the darkness, something massive that was moving at a rapid rate. "What the fuck is the Grinder?"

  Dath'tauth didn’t answer. In the time it took me to turn my head again, he had strived on ahead of me by several feet, and then suddenly disappeared into the wall it seemed. The noise behind me was becoming deafening, a massive rumbling sound that was punctuated by the more percussive sounds of metal parts working and banging together. When I looked behind me again, I actually froze when I saw that colossal metal machine coming toward me. It took up the entire width of the passageway and was many feet high. Cylinders with huge spikes on them spun all over it in different directions, and metal maws opened and closed to reveal razor sharp edges. The thing seemed alive as it barrelled toward me, a gigantic metal monster whose only purpose was to grind anything in its path to complete dust after it had chewed and tore apart whatever was unlucky enough to be its way.

  Which was going to be me, I soon realized with horror, if I didn’t get moving. But as soon as I turned around, my foot caught on a raised bit of stone, and I tripped and fell to the floor, while all the while, the Grinder kept coming, seeming to speed up even in order to get to me. As I scrambled back to my feet, I started to run in pure panic, expecting the Grinder to gobble me up in its metal maw any second. I didn’t even know where I was running to, except that I was running blindly straight ahead, some part of my mind thinking I could outrun the bloodthirsty machine on my tail.

  I only stopped running when I felt a tight grip on my arm, and then I was roughly pulled off to the side and thrown against the wall, soon realizing that I was now in a different passageway and the Grinder was roaring by down the other one I had been in, actually seeming pissed off that it had missed me, if that was possible.

  "I did say hurry," Dath'tauth said.

  Leaning back against the wall and breathing hard, I merely shook my head at him.

  Dath'tauth stood staring at me with his empty eye sockets for an uncomfortably long time after the Grinder had moved on down the passageway, to the point where it felt like I was shrinking under his glare, or he was growing in size, one of the two. He was, without a doubt, the scariest being I had ever come across, which was saying a lot considering some the individuals I had met recently. The darkness coming off him was so deep as to be unfathomable to my mind, and it was that seeming inability to understand the demon that made him so scary. He had seen and done things in this place called Hell that no human mind could even begin to comprehend, or even want to. "This way," he said almost grudgingly, giving me the impression that he was somehow annoyed that he couldn’t have
his way with me. Thank god for the rules, that’s all I can say.

  He led me down another series of dark passageways, many of which were apparently booby trapped. As we moved along, he would tell me to mind my step here or there, or to stay close to the walls unless I wanted to fall into some dark pit filled with foul creatures that would work on slowly devouring every morsel of my body and soul.

  Eventually, Dath'tauth stopped in front of a massive iron door set into the wall of one of the passageways. Wrapping a large hand around the handle, he pushed down on it and opened the door, the metal screeching against the hinges as if the door hadn’t been opened in an age. Swallowing nervously, I followed him into a surprisingly small room that was filled with a blood-red, muted sort of light, though there was no sign of where the light was coming from. It just seemed to be there, as if it was already present in the atmosphere.

  Once in the room, the heavy iron door slammed shut behind me, seemingly of its own accord, the noise of it making me jump.

  "What’s in here?" I asked Dath'tauth as I looked around, excepting to see something horrible, surprised when all I saw was empty space.

  "You will see," Dath'tauth said as he stood back near the wall.