by HP Mallory
Lils distracted a few demons, and Tallis landed the killing blows. With their strongest fighters down for the count, the other demons beat a fast retreat. We stood at the center of what looked like a mass burial. The others looked at me expectantly. I ain’t rightly sure when I got dubbed the leader but it made sense, all the same.
“As I was saying, there’s a trapdoor somewhere around here,” I said while I stepped on top of some dead thing’s head like you see them victorious leaders do in all them history paintings. I just needed a pointy hat to complete the whole look.
“A trapdoor?” Lils repeated again. “A trap door to where?”
“To the Sanctuary,” I answered. “It was a place Uriel built, from what I can remembers.”
“The Sanctuary?” Lils said.
“Yeah, it’s another secret that weren’t included in the manual,” I said. “Dante wasn’t allowed to put everything in his book, you get?”
“I get,” Lils answered but I weren’t even sure she knew what the turn o’ phrase meant. So I continued talking.
“The best part? Because this place was created by Uriel an’ it ain’t on no map or GPS unit, Alaire won’t be able to find it even if he tried.” I took me a big breath. “An’ only an angel can locate the trapdoor and open it.”
“Okay, so do it!”
“Okay, so do it,” I mocked her. “It ain’t so easy, Pippy!”
“What’s the problem?”
“The problemo is that there’s a big fuckin’ monster guardin’ the trap door.” The others glared at me like I’d just kicked their puppies and banged their moms. “What?”
“I told you it weren’t gonna be easy,” I said with a shrug.
“Easy or not, Bill is correct,” Kemosabe said. “We need to find the trap door to the Sanctuary.”
“Why?” Lily demanded.
“Because it’s the only way to find Uriel.”
###
LILY
After I explained the conversation between my mother and me in the land of the living, Bill remained by my side and didn’t make much conversation. He was worried, I could tell.
Tallis and Asterion mulled over the information from my mother in silence, while Bill dug around in his pocket and handed me Jenny’s locket.
“She wanted you to have it,” he said.
“Jenny wanted me to have it? Why?”
“I’m not sure. She said it was a gift from Uriel, but she didn’t explain much else.” The angel’s tone held none of his usual humor, and I touched his arm briefly. While worrying about myself, I never stopped to see just how much all of us were changing. Bill was somewhat calmer than before, not resorting to his usual tactics, and he seemed to express his emotions better. I suspected Asterion had something to do with the changes because ever since he’d come on this… adventure, Bill had seemed more introspective, somehow. Asterion had that way about him—he was serious, yes, but he was also incredibly sensitive and seemed to want to help pull that side out of everyone he met.
I slipped the locket around my neck and tucked it into my shirt. “How do we get to this trapdoor, Feathers?” I asked.
“Feathers?” Bill repeated as he looked back up at me.
I shrugged. “I figured you shouldn’t be the only one to come up with silly nicknames.”
“Why feathers?”
“Um, you’re an angel?”
He chuckled and his whole belly shook. “Oh, yeah. Feathers… yeah, I like it, Nips.”
“Now, back to this trap door, we’re after… you said there was a monster guarding it?”
He nodded. “Yeah, about that…”
“What is it?” I asked.
“There’s a Geryon protecting it.”
“What the hell is that?” I asked.
“It ain’t pretty,” Bill answered. “It’s got three bodies, four arms, wings, and three big fucking heads.”
###
LILY
I slowly crept across the bridge. Tallis was in front of me and Asterion and Bill were close behind.
Rubble broke free of the wooden slats and fell down what appeared to be an endless chasm of blackness below us. A loud, guttural roar sounded from the shadows, and Tallis grabbed my arm to stay my movements. I was about to speak, but he pressed a finger over his lips to quiet me. Even though he silenced my voice, he couldn’t silence the constant drumming of my heart. I knew what we were up against—something big and something bad. Something that could easily kill us. The creature that dwelled in this part of the realm was rumored to be able to hear a person’s deepest, darkest truths. I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant but it didn’t sound good.
Asterion had already explained to us that only someone pure of heart would be able to tame the Geryon. And of the four of us, I was considered the person with the “least amount of shit” as Bill had put it. Translated, that meant I had the best chance of defeating whatever creature this thing was in order to locate the trap door and then Bill would have to open it.
“I’m okay, Tallis,” I whispered.
“Ah didnae agree to let ye do this, Lily. I still believe we should talk aboot it!”
“We don’t have time to talk,” I responded with a frown. “Alaire’s men are regrouping. Now is the time for action!”
“Chargin’ in when we are ill prepared will result in naethin’ but defeat!”
“I disagree.” I knew I was flirting with danger, but time was more of the essence now than it had ever been, in my mind. Tallis looked around, as if searching for the sound of flapping wings or growling beast, but there was nothing. The air here was musty and humid, but it was nothing when compared to the sewers we’d traveled so many times.
“I hear somethin’,” Tallis said.
I cocked my head to the side in order to listen, but I couldn’t hear anything. But, I also didn’t possess Tallis’s Druid magic, so there was that.
Whatever magic you might possess is only going to show itself when the time is right, a voice sounded in my head.
Yeah, that’s totally unhelfpul, I responded.
“What do you hear?” I asked Tallis.
“There are souls that writhe in the depths o’ the pit below us, lass. They are screamin’ out the confessions of their hearts to the beast that lurks there.”
I gripped Tallis’s hand and continued along the bridge, more resolute now than ever before for all of them to reach the other side. As for me? I had a job to do.
When we reached the other side, my heart started hammering double-time. Now it was time for me to take on the next part of this mission—the part that could go wrong… very wrong.
“Lily,” Tallis started.
I shook my head. “I have to do this.”
“No, ye dinnae.”
I walked into his arms. Tallis’s stare grew soft, and his calloused fingers stroked my face. I lifted up on my toes and ran my fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck to pull him forward. I tilted my head to the perfect angle and tasted him, tasted heat, sweat, and desire on his lips. The kiss deepened as I pressed my chest against him. His kiss was addictive, just like he was. Luscious and tantalizing with enough tenderness to make my heart flutter. He nibbled my lip, and lust flared inside me.
Asterion cleared his throat and it was Tallis who broke the kiss…
He stared down at me and licked his lips.
“This isn’t goodbye,” I said.
I placed my hands on his chest and pushed him towards Asterion.
“Be careful, Nips,” Bill said as he faced me with doubt and worry in his eyes.
“I will,” I promised.
“You can do this,” Asterion said as he reached for my hands and squeezed them tightly. I didn’t say anything but gave him a small smile of gratitude.
And then I started back over the bridge.
I knew what I had to do. Asterion had explained it to me. Tallis had argued it with me and Bill had taken Asterion’s side before starting to sob, saying something through the blubbering that no
one could understand.
I reached the center of the bridge and though I wanted to, I refused to look back at them. There was no point in delaying the inevitable and waiting to do it wasn’t going to help anyone.
So I closed my eyes, gripped my sword as tightly as I could, and dove into the chasm.
Large, glowing orbs watched as I plummeted towards the bleak darkness. I fell. For a long time. Or at least it felt that way. But time in the Underground City was a funny thing—it didn’t pass the way time in the mortal world passed.
When I landed on the ground, the impact wasn’t hard. It felt like landing on a clouded bank of Jell-O. The fog cleared and I found myself in a pit, surrounded by walls of austere stone. Blue light filtered into the crevice, though I didn’t know where it was coming from. The floor of the pit spanned maybe ten feet across.
At the sound of growling, I lifted my head and stared into the darkness before me.
And that was when the Geryon stepped out of the shadows and faced me.
It was immense—standing probably ten feet tall. Its wings arched up and out of its back, almost appearing as bird wings with the flurry of its feathers. But the bottoms were red with blood, as if it had dipped them in a vat of the stuff. Each of its four hands were tipped with large and long claws and it possessed three upper bodies of pure muscle. Its heads almost looked like aliens, devoid of hair but with large, orb-like eyes that glowed white. The heads didn’t possess noses but they did have huge tusks that grew from the bottom portion of its jaws, jutting out into sharp points. Its two legs terminated in cloven hooves.
“Why have you come?” it asked, all three voices sounding at the same time. The voices were of different cadences and the sound was almost melodic.
“I need access to the door you protect,” I answered. My heart was spasming in my chest, I was so scared. But, somehow my voice came out controlled.
The Geryon flapped its wings and the wind swirled up around me, causing debris to fly into my face. It was then that I could hear the morbid whispers of the dead that inhabited this place. I couldn’t quite make out their words though.
“What is your name?” the thing continued.
“Lily Harper.”
It grabbed my upper arm with one of its clawed hands and thrust me into the wall. I could feel the rock of the wall ripping into my sweatshirt.
“We sense fear within you,” the thing said.
I closed my eyes and remembered what power this thing possessed. The ability to read my own truths.
“I’m afraid,” I answered.
“Though not just of us,” it responded. “Tell us, Soul Retriever, what are you afraid of?”
I was quiet as I considered the question. My answer would be the difference between my surviving this ordeal and not. I had to be truthful but I also had to make sure I understood my own truth. And that was not such an easy task. The knowledge of self wasn’t something I fully possessed, I didn’t think.
I took a deep breath and felt myself shudder as I found my voice.
“I’m afraid,” I started but then lost my voice.
“Touch us when you respond,” the creature said. “So we may read the truth in your blood.”
I reached up to stroke the leathery skin of its forearm.
“I’m afraid because…” I started. “I don’t know who I am.”
The Geryon trembled. “You speak the truth,” one of the voices answered.
“But there is more,” another one added.
“Tell us,” the third said.
“I’m afraid that by not knowing myself… I will disappoint everyone around me, including myself. I’m… afraid I won’t be able to… do the things I need to do.”
“Why?” all three voices asked in unison.
“Because if I don’t know myself, then what do I really know? And how can I be successful without self-understanding?”
“We cannot provide answers for you,” the three voices said.
I nodded and the thing stepped away from me. I opened my eyes and found all six of its glowing eyes focused on me.
“Let me guess,” I started. “Only I can find the answers for myself?”
All three of its heads nodded. “You have passed our test,” it said at last. The relief within me was almost too much.
“Then what happens now?” I asked.
“We take you where you need to go,” the heads answered.
“Will I be able to find Uriel by traveling through the trap door?” I asked.
“Uriel is in the Void,” the three voices answered.
“But the Void is accessed through the door?”
“The Sanctuary is accessed through the door,” the creature responded. “And only one from the Kingdom can open it.”
“Does the Sanctuary lead to the Void?”
“The Sanctuary provides the waters which, if swallowed, lead to the Trials.”
“The Trials?”
“The only way to reach Uriel is to survive the Trials,” the Geryon announced. And it started flapping its wings once again as it reached out with those muscled arms.
“How do I find these Trials?”
“You must take the waters from the Sanctuary of Uriel, and drink them before submerging yourself in the Waterfall of Forever…”
“And where is this Waterfall of Forever?”
“It is located in the Dark Wood.”
“How do I find it?”
“You wear the map,” the Geryon responded and I had no idea what it was talking about. I wore the map?
“I don’t understand.”
“We have spoken enough,” the Geryon said and I allowed it to encircle me and I held onto its forearms as it lifted us up the dark pit. I closed my eyes against the intensity of the wind created by its wings.
When we breached the opening of the pit, I opened them again and watched the expressions of surprise as they took hold of Tallis, Asterion and Bill’s faces.
“She did it!” Bill called out.
The Geryon soared up towards the sky and landed on the bridge in a crouch that rivaled any dragon or superhero. Tallis and the others stared. Their jaws dropped when the Geryon all but purred beneath my touch.
“Friends or foes?” The Geryon asked.
“Friends,” I answered. “We are all in search of the trap door.”
“We shall take you,” the creature answered.
TWELVE
TALLIS
As soon as the stookie angel opened the trap door, snow was the first thing I noticed. The Geryon had delivered us and taken off, back into the darkness of the night.
I looked up at an endless starry sky as snow drifted softly from obsidian clouds above our heads. Two moons overlapped one another, casting a pale blue light into what appeared to be a cave made of ice. Me breath came in puffs of smoke and flecks of powder clung to me lashes.
Lily walked through a narrow tunnel, and I had no choice but to follow. The others trailed behind, and we made our way out of the passage. We came upon a large chamber, and torches of amethyst light came to life, dousing us in their ambient glow.
A crypt or some sort of temple revealed itself.
“The Sanctuary,” Lily said in awe.
Words in Enochian, the language of the angels, were scrawled around the doorway.
“Hark the weary heart’s lament and learn of the Sanctuary of the heavens that rests amidst the darkest trenches,” read the angel.
“What does it mean?” Besom asked.
“It means only the undamned can enter or some shit like that,” the angel answered.
“What do you mean ‘some shit like that’?” Lily demanded. “Isn’t this important to know?”
The stookie angel shook his head, then shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t really speak remixed Shakespearean drabble. Looks to me like Uriel made this place for people like us, and that’s all I care about. Whattcha say, Conan?”
“What I say?” I repeated.
“You been here before
?” the angel explained.
“I’ve nae been here before, stookie angel. Me travels have taken me far, an’ I once thought Ah had been everywhere in the Oonderground City, boot this has changed me mind.”
I walked towards the doorway and placed me hand on the stone that blocked the entrance. Cracks began to form beneath me palm, and the stone crumbled to dust by no power of me own. The inside of the temple was much bigger than it appeared on the outside.
Marble floors as pure as the snow that continued to fall beyond the doorway stretched across the expansion of the room. The same amethyst flames lit candles that covered various surfaces within the temple, and the light seemed to pour like water from a font behind a statue of folded angel wings. Golden silk draped from the ceiling and wrapped around pillars of the same marble as the floors. I half expected to hear the sound of voices singing, but there was no music.
And the feeling here… it was… powerful. As I stood there, I felt my magical reserves refueling. Power and energy seemed to grow within me from the feet up. The weariness that had taken hold of me after the fight at Jenny’s was now gone. And in its place was a vigor I had not felt in a very long time. As I looked at the bruises and cuts that had been upon me arms and legs, they were now nowhere to be seen.
This place was a healing refuge as much as it was a safe haven.
A long whistle echoed through the temple, and I peered over at the angel.
“I’m sure we’re safe here to catch some Z’s if you guys wanna rest up,” the angel continued, making little sense, as was his custom.
Besom wrapped her arms around me waist and leaned her head against the muscle of me back. She snuggled up to me as the angel and the Minotaur inspected the temple.
“I like it here. I feel... safe, even though it’s unsettlingly quiet.” And then something seemed to occur to her. “How is it that this place is even here?” she asked.
“What you talkin’ bout, Willis?” the angel responded.
She faced him. “We’re in the Underground City, last I checked? So how is it possible that this place, an angelic one, is here in the first place?”
