Except the freaking humans, you mad cow! It was taking every ounce of strength I had not to shove Tess over the edge of the lookout and watch her tumble into the hexagon. The humans would have ripped her apart, and I wouldn’t have stopped them.
“Fascinating. Right, Volla?” Finch leveled his gaze at me, his tone carrying a note of reassurance to keep me grounded. He needed me to stay focused, and my resolve was slipping. I kept my eyes on him. If I looked back at those poor humans, I’d lose it. By coming here, we’d truly stepped through the gates of hell, and I had no clue which circle we were currently in.
One thing was for sure: we couldn’t do anything to wage war against the cult right now, not with just the two of us. I had to pull myself together or risk blowing this entire operation. We had a job to do, to stop Katherine in her tracks. It was bigger than this, even though my heart was breaking for those humans. If we tried to do anything now, we’d end up in this hexagonal pit with the very people we wanted to save.
Get it together, Merlin. Add every one of these cult bastards to your list if you have to, but get it together.
* * *
My head hung over the edge of the toilet seat at our temporary hut. Tess had brought us back not too long ago, and after what I’d just witnessed, I was in very real danger of hurling my stomach into the bowl. Finch had devoured his box of food as soon as we got in—how he’d managed to eat anything was beyond me. Right now, food was the farthest thing from my mind. All I could think about were those poor humans—and what would happen if we were found out.
Finch knocked on the bathroom door. “How you doing in there?”
“Bad.”
“Mind if I open the door?”
“Go ahead.”
He peered inside. “Just wanted to let you know I found some spying hexes, but I burned them. They always use them on the newbies. There aren’t any in here, though.”
I looked up at him, feeling green around the gills. “Spying hexes?”
“Yeah, they tuck them around these huts when they bring new recruits in.”
“Are they watching us?”
“Fortunately, no. Spying hexes work like tape recorders. They can’t listen in live. Not that they’d want to, with you retching like a dog.” He chuckled. “They’ll be pretty miffed when they can’t find a recording to listen to. Guess they’ll just have to live with it.”
“How are you doing this?” I groaned, wiping sweat from my forehead. I couldn’t believe how easily he was dealing with everything.
He frowned. “Finding the spying hexes? It’s simple when you know what you’re looking for.”
I shook my head and sat back against the bathroom wall. “Not that. All of this—the humans, the trials, everything.”
He perched on the edge of the bathtub opposite. “It’s nothing personal. I’m just mission-oriented. Always have been. I guess it’s the one good thing that Katherine taught me. I can separate myself from anything that might be a distraction. And I mean anything.” He paused, kicking his feet against the tub. “Right now, my mission is to get into the cult, find Hester’s spirit, and screw Katherine over as much as possible before I get the heck out again. Nothing else matters. You should follow suit.”
“I’m not wired like that.”
“Then rewire yourself,” he said simply. “The way I see it, the only way we can save those humans, and the ones who’ll keep coming after they’re dead, is to destroy the cult. You need to compartmentalize.”
“How do I do that?” I swept a hand through my spiky blonde hair.
“Well, we need to think about how we’re going to get Hester’s spirit. Sure, I know where it is, but we can’t get close to the cult’s operational compound until we pass these trials. So, that’s step one—pass the trials. Simple. Step two, retrieve Hester’s spirit. Step three, get out of here. Step four, stop Katherine and bring about the demise of the cult. Think about it like that, in bite-size chunks.”
I knew it would take more than words to change my way of thinking, but I saw his point. I needed to focus on the bigger picture. Yes, what was happening to those humans was terrible and gut-wrenching and nauseating, but if we didn’t stop Katherine, that could be the fate of the rest of the human world.
“We’re in this together. If you fail, I fail. If you die, I die.” He smiled. “Not to be dramatic.”
“I’ll do better,” I said, surprisingly energized by his unexpected pep talk. “I know what we need to do. I’ll stay focused. It was just a shock, seeing that back there.”
He nodded. “Unfortunately, it’s not new. I’ve seen it before.”
“Only seen it?” I had to know just how far down the rabbit hole Finch had gone when he was Katherine’s lackey.
“Yeah, only seen it. I had limits to what I’d do for Katherine, even back then.” He sounded hurt that I’d suggest otherwise.
“What were your limits?”
He shrugged. “I never got involved with any of the human stuff. I did what Katherine asked, and she didn’t force me to do anything to them. I organized missions for her and tried to reduce collateral damage where I could. I ran missions of my own. I suppose you wouldn’t believe me if I said I never wanted to get anyone hurt, huh?”
“Gargoyles, Finch. Gargoyles.”
He nodded solemnly. “Fair point. But that was the first time I knew people were going to get hurt. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to go through with it, but I knew I couldn’t let Katherine down. I was so deep under her spell that disappointing her was the worst thing that could’ve happened to me. It would’ve felt like my world had crumbled.”
“So, what was your guilty pleasure then, if it wasn’t torturing humans?” I wanted to break the sad tension in the room.
He dropped his gaze. “It’s stupid.”
“Go on.”
“You’ll laugh.”
I grinned at him. “So?”
“Ugh… I used to ask for the newest comic books from the outside world. That was my vice.” He glanced at me with shy eyes. “What can I say, I’m a sucker for a superhero.”
“Well, you were following a supervillain around for long enough. It was bound to have an effect.” I wanted to tell him that it wasn’t stupid at all, that it was actually sort of sweet, but I didn’t want to offer that big of an olive branch just yet. He’d probably watched other cultists torture humans without much trouble. He wasn’t that innocent. Even so, it made me look at him in a different way, seeing the lost boy instead of the broken man. He’d had his childhood stolen from him, so it was almost natural that he’d have wanted the things he’d never had as a kid.
He chuckled sadly. “I guess I never thought of it like that.”
“So what you’re saying is, Katherine keeps her subjects happy by giving them everything they want, within the limits of the island. In return, they do whatever she wants. That right?”
“Hit the nail on the head.”
“I guess that’s one way to get a job done.” I laid my head against the bathroom wall and tried to ignore just how creepy all of this was. But Finch was right. If I kept myself focused on the endgame, I’d be able to get past everything else, at least for long enough to do what I needed to. I’d never forget that there were innocent people being tormented on the other side of the island, but that was a good thing. I wasn’t supposed to forget. I was just supposed to get the bigger obstacle out of the way first—if I could cut off the snake’s head, the rest would collapse. And they’d be free.
I didn’t remember falling asleep, but I blinked open my eyes to find Finch shaking me roughly by the shoulders. I was still in the bathroom, a blanket covering my body. Frantically, I jumped up and pushed past him, hurrying to the mirror. I hadn’t meant to drift off, and I feared the worst might have happened. But even though I’d fallen asleep, Volla had stayed with me. There were her cobalt-blue eyes, staring right back.
“Oh, thank God.” I heaved out a sigh of relief, just as Finch lifted a finger to his lips and shook h
is head. “What? What is it?”
“Naima’s here,” he said. “It’s time for the second trial.”
Twenty
Harley
Still yawning from my unexpected sleep, I followed Naima and Finch out of the hut. Tess was waiting for us in the glade beyond the hut, that same strange smile on her lips. It was pitch black outside, aside from the glow of the treetop orbs and the silvery light of a crescent moon glancing in through the interdimensional pocket. Everything looked creepier in the darkness, the stone statues looming out of the canopy like hulking titans. This place had seemed like paradise in the daylight, but night had transformed it into a Lord of the Flies nightmare.
My boots thudded on the metal walkways, leaving an echoing clang as we made our way to our next destination. If Naima was taking us back to that horrific hexagon, I didn’t know if I’d have the stomach to make it through the second stage of our induction. Bigger picture, Merlin. Focus.
“What’s with the stone giants?” I needed to break the silence between the four of us.
“They’re the guardians of Eris Island,” Tess replied. “They’re depictions of the Children of Chaos, the very beings that allow us to be here, and where Eris will soon take her place as a goddess among mortals.”
“She’s planning on turning to stone?” I flashed a forced smile, but nobody laughed.
“Nice one, Volla.” Finch’s tone held a warning. This wasn’t the time for jokes.
Tess pointed to a nearby titan as we crossed a walkway that came close to its towering height. I looked up toward its sculpted face, and it set my nerves on edge. It had the horns and face of a goat, the torso of a man, and two enormous stone wings folded behind its back, with cloven hooves instead of feet. Ah, so Satan is watching over this place.
“Baphomet, right?” Finch said.
Tess smiled. “It was designed with his image in mind, yes. In our case, it’s supposed to represent the might of Erebus. Katherine deemed it the most fitting example, as it stands for the tradition of a perfect social order. The kind she hopes to bring to our world.”
It sent a chill through me. “Is that really what Erebus looks like?”
“As I said, it’s a representation, meant to encompass more than just Erebus himself.” Tess shot me a withering look that silenced me. Somehow, I’d managed to become the class idiot without meaning to.
“I must pause here for a moment,” Naima said, leading us down a sloping walkway toward the eerie titan. We lingered on the damp grass, watched by Tess. In the darkness ahead, I heard rustling and the screech of an unseen bird.
Naima went right up to the stone giant, pressing her hand to a carved star embedded between Erebus’s hooves. She mumbled something in Latin, and the stone slid away, revealing a secret doorway in the statue itself. She disappeared inside, then returned a few minutes later with two charmed jars in her hands. I recognized the glass and the symbols etched along it; these were jars that held Purge beasts. Taking a closer look at the stone titan, I realized this must be where Naima hid her own version of the Bestiary—the powerhouse that made this entire operation work.
“The second trial is as follows,” Naima said, brandishing the two large jars. “You must tame a Purge monster each. I have specifically selected these rather charming creatures, as I have had some trouble taming them myself. Not all Purge beasts are created equal—I am a testament to that—and, despite my skill in this field, some creatures simply cannot, and will not, be controlled. These are two such monsters.”
So how do you expect us to tame them, if you can’t? I didn’t say it out loud, but I wanted to. It was almost as if these trials had been designed with failure in mind.
“What are they?” I asked instead.
She smirked. “That is for you to discover.” She set the jars on the ground and disappeared back inside her Bestiary. When she returned, she held a large box in her arms.
“These trials aren’t supposed to be easy,” Tess snarked.
I frowned at the box. “Is that another creature?”
“No, this is merely the raw meat you may use to entice the beasts into behaving, though it will not be as simple as bringing a stray dog to heel. They are as likely to eat you.” She chuckled darkly and set the box down between the jars. “You have half an hour, beginning now. If you fail, you will die. Katherine will only accept the best and most powerful into the cult. The rest are merely feed for my monsters. And, while your performances in the arena were exceptional, it is not enough to secure your place among us.”
“Why kill so many good soldiers if you need an army?” I couldn’t hold the question back.
Naima nodded thoughtfully. “An excellent question. Had you arrived with exceptional ability—a rare power, perhaps—these trials would have been tailored differently. Knowing of your reputations, we are aware that you lack any such abilities. You are Elementals only, and while your abilities are very strong indeed, they are nothing that Katherine needs, per se. As such, you must endure much more difficult trials to ensure you are worthy of your place.”
“Quality over quantity, right?” I smiled, keeping up the ruse of Volla’s sharp attitude.
“Precisely.”
Tess nodded. “A lot of ordinary magicals die in these trials, but it’s all for the greater good. That is how Eris weeds out the weak, to have only the most skilled at her side. Why have an army riddled with Mediocrity?”
It made a twisted sort of sense, not that I agreed with any of it. I could only imagine the kill rate in this place, and that wasn’t including the human experiments on the far side of the island.
“Good luck.” Tess grinned at us, lifting her hands. A white light shot out, forming a time-lapse bubble around us. The last time I’d seen one of these was in New Orleans, when Papa Legba’s townhouse had started to crumble. I didn’t exactly have good memories linked to these things, and I doubted that was about to change.
“We must go, Tess.” Naima stepped toward the edge of the bubble and beckoned for Tess to join her. Together, they disappeared through the membrane to safety, leaving Finch and me alone with whatever was lurking in those jars.
“Okay, then. Beast time,” Finch said, carefully approaching the nearest jar. I walked toward the second jar and tried to catch a glimpse of the creature inside. Black smoke swirled and twisted, but I couldn’t make out a distinct shape.
“Can they see us in the time-lapse bubble?” I asked tensely.
Finch shook his head. “Definitely not in this one. It’ll be extra sturdy.”
I exhaled, unsure of whether that made me feel relieved or more nervous. At least it meant we could use all of our abilities to get these beasties tamed.
I reached for the jar and unscrewed the lid. For a moment, nothing happened. And then, a stream of black smoke poured out of the glass, growing limbs and a body, its ugly head appearing as the mist faded away. A gargoyle—my favorite. Only this one looked way nastier than any I’d encountered before, foam frothing at its wet lips, its eyes black and wild, its knotted muscles pulsating beneath its scaly skin.
To my right, another creature was forming after being released by Finch. It was way bigger than the gargoyle, with a huge body that seemed to be made from rock, its torso and arms covered in moss and lichen, while weeds sprouted from its face. A golem.
“Looks like you’ve made a friend,” Finch said, nodding at the gargoyle. It had set its sights on me before I could even ask to switch. It sniffed the air and grimaced, something dark and slimy dripping from its sharp teeth as it spread out its wings and howled.
“Yeah, they’ve got a thing for me.” I flashed him a grin before launching myself at the gargoyle.
“Must run in the blood!” Finch ducked a savage blow from the golem.
I laughed bitterly. “Why couldn’t we have been normal? Like, imagine if our parents had been lawyers and accountants.” I grappled with the gargoyle’s throat, wrapping a lasso of Telekinesis around it and yanking it halfway across the expan
sive bubble.
“Accountants are way worse than what we ended up with, believe me!” Finch shot back, as he sent his own lasso of Telekinesis toward the golem, swiping it off its feet. It crashed to the ground, sending a shudder through the earth that almost knocked me down, too.
I rounded on the gargoyle and drove a fireball into the back of its head. It yelped in pain and scurried away from me, breaking loose from the Telekinesis. It didn’t get far, as I shot a judder of Earth through the ground, a circle of small trees shooting up around the creature, penning it in. At least, for a moment. I’d forgotten about the wings. It howled again and burst out of the wall of trees, powering through the air toward me.
“You made it mad, Sis!” Finch chuckled as he tackled the golem, his legs dangling over the creature’s shoulders as he rode around and tried to tug its head off with his Telekinesis.
“We’re supposed to tame them, not kill them,” I reminded him as I dove out of the way of the incoming gargoyle. It screamed at me and flapped its way up into the air again, its leathery wings vibrating.
Finch pulled a face. “Killing them would be way easier.”
“But that isn’t always the answer, remember?” I feinted out of the way of another aerial attack and sent up a spiral of powerful Air. With all the work I’d been putting into controlling my abilities, my success rate with Air and Earth had gotten a lot better. The gargoyle got caught in the maelstrom, spinning around and around like a lone sock in a washing machine. It was almost comical to watch, though I was aware this thing would devour me if it had half the chance.
With my focus fixed on the gargoyle, I’d forgotten about Finch’s golem. I didn’t see it until it was right on me, pinning me to the ground with its hefty stone foot. The breath rushed out of my lungs as I fought to break free, but it had me trapped. Turning over my shoulder, I watched Finch try to wrestle with the creature and push it away from me, but he was having some trouble. Meanwhile, I’d lost my hold on the maelstrom, and the gargoyle was about to make a dart for freedom.
Harley Merlin 6: Harley Merlin and the Cult of Eris Page 16
