by Conny Conway
“Morrigan, for once don’t be such a kill joy.” Balor snickered. “Let’s not repeat the mistake of Cuchulainn, a senseless death of a great warrior turned into stone by you, because he had the courage to deny you his love.”
A giant leaned bored against one of the pillars.
“I say let’s burn her. We haven't had a sacrifice for a millennia.”
He cleaned his teeth with a snatched spear of the guards, using it like a toothpick.
“So, as I can tell most of you demand her death.”
The king of the Gods and Demons concluded as he shook his head to the giant Taranis.
” Though tell me, what to do with Lann, he is one of us.”
Tumult was the answer demanding also his death, decapitation and then his remains should be fed to the hell hounds Black Shack and East Anglia.
Balor’s fangs gleamed ugly in the torch light as a wide grin distorted his monstrous face. He waved his hand and the racket stopped abruptly. He bowed down to Lann.
“You are a good warrior, Lann, I would hate to lose you. But the court has decided on both of your deaths. I promise, I will kill your female quickly with a look of my eye, you in turn should suffer so none will repeat your crime.” His words were spoken softly.
The Demon God turned his reptile eye on the female. The air around him seemed to vibrate with magic. The one reptile eye open wide and started to flash pitch black, a vast darkness.
“No,” Lann yelped, turning the woman away from the hypnotic eyeball before its deadly stare had stopped the heart.
He held her in his embrace away from the deadly glare.
“Do as you wish with me, but don’t kill her. She is innocent, you may wipe away the memory of this hell hole. “
He demanded.
“Whoa,” Balor looked amazed. “Are you wearing your big girl bridges today, Lann?”
Lann grimaced.
The Demon God looked puzzled at the young man in front of his throne.
” So, you are second guessing my ruling?”
“No, my liege, just that you might be blind sighted by the rules all together. If a human would venture knowingly into our world I would not breath a word, but this young female here,” he indicated at her, “had no choice. I brought her here while she was out cold. Please, think it over and release her.”
The black eyes were fixed on the creature on the throne, which returned it with its one eye, bemused over the argumentation of one of his subjects. Thoughtfully he scratched his left claw with the right.
Lann knew this gesture well, it meant that the God of death and destruction was really thinking about the matter at hand. Balor sat quietly for a little while, his eye did not show any emotions except every so often a little bemusement. He turned to a Gladiator, heavily armed and whispered for a little while with this obviously human, which seemed misplaced here in this hell.
Finally the king thundered for all to hear.
“Lann, I came to a verdict. I can’t let her go, even if I would wipe out the memory of this night, in dreams she will venture back unknowing. Humans have a bad habit once their curiosity is peeked they are like hell hounds, biting into the subject until they find the cause. Therefore she will not return to the upper realm. No, Lann, be quiet.”
He commanded as he saw that the golden warrior took a deep breath to argue the verdict again.
Balor continued with his huge voice,” I will throw her in the pit.”
“This is just as bad as killing her right away. She is a human, she has no strength to withstand the fae down there.”
Again Balor scratched his claw then smiled broadly
.” You are right. You will accompany her and if she means that much to you, you’ll do the fighting for her.”
Now it was the winged man who pondered.
“What if we will make it back here?”
“Then I will grant her immortality. But my dear Lann, don’t count on making it back here.”
Balor didn’t wait for another reply, he just nodded to the troll to his left, which stomped his foot down on an unseen button.
Chapter 3
The ground under the female human and the demigod started to swirl, the solid stone turned into sand, faster and faster it swirled, Lann and the woman lost the foothold and fell, swept away by the sand.
A maelstrom of it, faster than the eye could follow, until they reached the middle of it, where they were swallowed by the hole, sliding down a small channel and dumped unceremoniously on a hard rock.
She chocked on the dirt and dust and Lann grunted at the impact. Both were bruised, dusty and rubbed raw from the sand.
“Damned.” Lann cursed getting up to his feet, still with that swirling feeling in his head.
The girl looked up at him, her eyes still mirrored her dizziness also, but she tried to focus on Lann.
“Where are we?” she muttered fearful.
“I assume we are at Uffern.”
“Where?”
“Uffern, Human.”
He had spoken more loudly than intended, but by now he was furious, hurt, exhausted and lost.
He had no clue what they would encounter or how to fight it, what creatures would be lurking around here in the twilight.
He assumed they were in a cave, at the mouth of it a red glow beckoned.
"My name is Shiloh.” She snipped. “And I have no idea what language you are speaking at times nor where this Uffern is or what it is.”
He lowered his eyelids, collected himself by remembering his own argument, she had done nothing to end up here.
He sighed, then Lann explained.
“Uffern is, uhm, let me think…ah. I think you call it Inferno.” His voice hoarse from his own restrain.
“Inferno?” Shiloh thought about the word, an inferno was a disaster, mostly no escape possible, it was chaos, without feeling or remorse.
“Hell!” She said understanding.
“Aye, I think that is what you call it.”
Her triumph died that second and she repeated, “Hell.”
The dizziness had vanished.
She looked up at him.
“What are we going to do?”
“First of all you need to get up before you’ll catch a cold.” He exclaimed. “Secondly we need to get out of this cave into the open, I have no clue what lurks in the shadows here. I want to be able to see what could be coming at us.”
He reached out his hand to help her up.
Uncertain she took his hand and felt his warmth on her cold fingers, a shiver went down the spine as their bodies touched in the process.
She pulled her hand from him as soon as she had solid ground under her feet.
“Is there any way we can escape from here?”
“I dunno know.” was his sparse answer.
“What do you mean you don’t know? This is your world, you should know.”
Again Lann had to remind himself of her innocence, but did not succeed completely.
“Pardon me, but I have never been in … Hell before.”
He grunted sourly.
Shiloh kept her tongue, she understood with her inquiries she disrupted his thinking and maybe the only chance to get out of the darkness.
Resolutely she turned to the mouth of the cavern and started to walk.
Lann jerked and stepped in front of her.
More gently he alleged that he should go ahead, so he could protect her from fiends jumping out of the shadows.
“And who is watching my back then?” Shiloh retorted grumpily.
She kept marching, Lann caught up to her side, aware of the gloom, ready to draw his sword, but they reached the entry without anyone or anything intercepting them.
Shiloh drew a breath.
”Amazing.”
The two of them stood at the edge of a knoll, peering down into the valley where a river wormed its way between the hills.
The sky, or whatever it would be called, changed its color in waves and hues of black
to red to blue and yellow and over again. It was on fire it seemed, but no heat was palpable.
No sun or stars, moon or any other light source, but the clouds in their color scheme, lit up their surroundings.
“What now?” she asked.
At a loss Lann just jerked his head to the ridge and started walking, still his hand on his weapon.
Shiloh shrugged her shoulders and walked beside him uphill, assuming they might have a better outlook from up there.
When they cleared the top, they stood immediately at the very edge of a village or city.
Due to nothing bad happening, Shiloh had become a little braver and she mumbled “ Welcome to Uffernville.”
It earned her a sarcastic gaze from the winged guy.
Hesitantly Lann strode into the street.
Nothing happened.
Shiloh followed him and caught up, they searched for movement, but saw nothing.
The road was seemingly empty.
“That’s what we humans call a ghost town.” she explained ironically.
“Be aware.” Lann hushed,” Nothing here is like it might seem.”
“Oh, look Lann, a dog.”
Though her enthusiasm disappeared as soon as it had surfaced.
The dog was frozen in his run, tongue lolling. And it was not only a dog there, some people and creatures seemed to have turned into stone in a split second, doing their chores, or as they were walking.
Lifeless stares followed the two newcomers.
The town was a ghost town.
The main street led to a Mayan pyramid, which dominated the whole village. Shiloh burned to ask him if they shouldn’t change direction, but something told her to keep quiet.
Lann halted at the first step of the immense building, listening intently.
“Do you hear this?” He inquired.
The woman strained to listen, then she heard it.
“It sounds like the hollowing of the wind, but down here not one little stir of it.”
“Aye, same as I thought.” The demigod confirmed.
He mulled over to access the stairs and started to climb them.
Again Shiloh felt like someone or something bound her tongue, as she wondered if it was wise to climb up there, but she followed him, no other choice but being left behind.
Before they scrambled the last two steps, they spotted the red and orange gleam of a fire.
Without hesitation both of them ascended the last step onto the plateau, where sure enough a small fire burned.
A minor girl sat in its glimmer, rocking back and forth, crying and lamenting all the while.
Shiloh felt a wave of pity rush over her and she hiked to the small child, maybe five years old. She wanted to offer a hug, but a warning chimed in her inners. Crouching down she kept silent, till the girl turned her tear stricken face to her.
The crying had ebbed and silence enveloped the flat terrain, even the fire was burning mutely, no crackling of the flames as it shone on the beautiful, rueful face of the kid. She had still those rosy baby cheeks, a pouty mouth and dirty blond curls.
Though her eyes, brown and deep, bore the weight of the world it seemed.
She sighed deeply and gazed into Shiloh’s green eyes.
The woman felt a wave of deep sadness overcome her.
“Hello, Sweetling.” Her voice kept low and comforting. “Won't you tell us why you are all alone up here and why you are so sad?”
The child’s eyes grew even wider, but more sorrow and tears dwelled up also, but she kept silent.
“Please, little one, maybe we can help.” Shiloh urged.
The little girl chewed on her bottom lip and inhaled visibly as if to speak.
”You will not be mad? “ She asked in a tiny voice.
“No baby. Come here and rest on my shoulder while you tell us what is wrong.”
As Shiloh spoke, Lann had kept an eye on the little girl, pondering if helping the little one would be wise.
This was Uffern after all and all pain here had a reason why. Though he kept silent.
Shiloh had stretched out her arms toward the girl, as to embrace her.
The child approached her hesitantly, seeing that Shiloh didn’t move or shy away from her, she snuggled into woman arms, which held her softly.
More tears and sobbing eluded the twilight and the noises returned.
The fire crackled and in the distance some animal howled, but the village stayed mute, no sign of life.
“Here, here, Baby.” Shiloh soothed.
“It’s all …my fault.” the child sobbed. “My entire fault….but I didn’t mean to…”
Weeping interrupted her speech. “Oh, if… I could only…take it all... back.”
The woman petted the dirty locks and rocked the child.
She was anxious to hear what the child had to say, but dared not to interrupt her.
“They are ...all gone…all… like …statues... If I only could…”
She cried onto Shiloh’s T-Shirt, wetness seeped onto her skin and the light grey fabric would most likely be stained from the dirty, little face.
Lann finally knelt down to the child also, laid his hand on her back tenderly.
“Tell, us, little One, what you would take back.”
The girl lifted her eyes to him.
‘The wish…the stupid wish.” She retorted.
“And what wish was that? Maybe the three of us could undo it together.”
He saw a microburst of hope flicker in the brown eyes, but it died the same instance.
“No, we can’t.” She sniveled.
“Don’t you think we should at least try?”
Again she gazed at him, but she shrugged her small shoulders in despair.
“No one could undo what I wished.”
Lann looked at her challenging.
“Because Cernunnos said so.”
Shiloh lifted her gaze to Lann and her eyes asked the silent question who that was, as Lann breathed deeply.
“He is the God of the underworld, mainly a man with antlers of a stag. A bad one.” He clued her in.
“Oh, my.” She exclaimed and the rocking of the girl increased a little.
“Please, tell us all.” The winged man inquired.
The little girl loosened her grip on Shiloh ever so slightly and through her tears she confessed.
“My mother told me to do my chores and then do my repenting. I was supposed to feed the chickens, when I saw a gleam of the fire up here. With the chicken in my arm I climbed up here and sat by the fire. Then...” she was interrupted by her sobbing again. “Then, the fire grew big and a man…was in the fire….his face… he was so nice….and he said I would never have to do my repenting again…”
Tears streamed now uncontrolled and her voice shook.
“What is your repenting and why? Surely a Sweetling like you couldn’t have done that much harm.” Shiloh tried to calm.
“I had played with fire up there.” She pointed towards the black orange firmament.” Right after Daddy and Mommy had brought all the money home. I had seen in TV how to light a candle with money and it had made the man on TV so happy. So I wanted to try it. “
She halted a bit.
”Mommy and daddy had been drinking because they were so happy about all the money, they said we would leave home to go to Rio, where it is always warm and I would never go hungry again.” Her eyebrows furrowed. “How could I have known that the drink, they had drunk, would catch on fire when the burning money fell into the puddle that they had spilled.”
She glanced an innocent look to Shiloh and Lann.
“But anyway, it did burn and the fire was so fast, I tried to wake up Mommy and Daddy, but they were so sleepy, I couldn’t make them open their eyes. Then I started to cough and I couldn’t breathe and it was so hot and bright…I don’t remember going to sleep, but I must have, because when I woke up we were here. The handsome man from the fire came to our house, the same like up there, as Mommy says, jus
t charcoaled, black and dirty, and he said Mom and Dad had to eat and drink and smoke grass, why grass I don’t know, forever and I had to light matches and burn my hands every day. This hurts so bad and I didn’t want to anymore.”
Again her soft cries robbed her of her breath for a few seconds.” Then he told me in the fire, that whatever I wish would come true. So I wished that Mom and Dad and all the others would keep quiet and not beat me or yell at me if I wouldn’t want to repent. And then…..then the town went very quiet, and…everyone… “
She couldn’t speak any more, shaken by her sobs while she clutched at the woman’s chest again, looked desperately up to the warrior.
Lann unlatched the girl from Shiloh’s body and held her like a babe in his arms.
“Listen, Little One, you feared that your parents would yell at you?”
“Or spank me again.”
“Or spank you, but you did the wish because you were afraid.”
“Yes.” She stammered.
“I wonder, maybe if you do go down there and confess the truth, maybe, just maybe everything will be back to normal.”
As he spoke the last words the flames of the fire grew immensely, a face visible in them and the fire roared “No!”
Shiloh and Lann, with the girl in his arms, jumped back.
The blaze still grew.
Shiloh snatched the canteen from Lann’s belt and threw it in the fire, where it melted and with a whoosh extinguishing the flames.
The little girls screaming ebbed and died down.
Lann couldn’t take his eyes of the spot where the fire had been just a moment ago. Not even ashes had remained.
“How…” was all he could stammer.
“I don’t know. It just seemed the right thing to do.”
Shiloh countered tiredly.
It had been a bad ass day for her, falling off the cliff, being kidnapped by a creature with wings, to whom she had teamed up with now, after being horrified of him in the first place, dragged to a throne, sentenced to death and thrown in this hell hole.
Her adventures had taken a toll and all she wanted to do now was sleep. But of cause there was no chance in hell.
At that thought she snickered, no chance in Uffern, she corrected herself. Warily she dragged her feet to the edge of the pyramid and started to clamber down.
