by T. G. Ayer
After what seemed like hours had gone by, Evie heard Gavriel speak. "Hold up there, Evangeline," He called as he slowed down. He'd finally stopped his rapid descent. Evie lowered herself faster until she was level with Gavriel. He turned and regarded her with his hooded eyes.
"I hate to sound like a ten year old, but how much further? We've been going at this pace for hours now," Evie asked. She suspected she already knew the answer. It can't be an easy place to get to - not the best spot for a vacation.
"A while more. Perhaps you should ask less questions and think more on what you are going to say to your - to Daniel." His voice was edged in bitterness.
Evie grunted silently.
Chapter 16
Evie gritted her teeth, biting her tongue on the words which teetered at its edge. Gavriel, was infuriatingly quiet. Gavriel. Should she now call him by his rightful name - The Archangel Gavriel? Or was it better to just continue as if he was still Gabriel, the father she had thought was hers but whom she never truly had?
Heat rose up from below Evie's feet, seeping through the thick soles of her boots. The further they sank into the belly of Hades the hotter it became. Sweat dripped from Evie's brow and trickled down her back as she went down, down, down. Below her Gavriel was unaffected by the heat. No perspiration dampened his brow, nor did his shirt stick to his body like limp seaweed. Evie snorted, reminded that she had only received the gifts of flight and glamor. Her search for her only living relative was meant to result in connecting with her family and finding out more about herself. Seems like she pretty much owned the short straw throughout her life, then. She huffed silently, it would not pay to alert Gavriel to her little pity-party.
The heat now burned her skin, as if she stood mere inches away from a blazing fire. Evie glanced around. The tunnel through which they now sank was lined with oily, black rock. Red veins of lava gleamed in tiny tributaries within the rock-face. They moved like skinny caterpillars, glowing bright and hot in squiggly lines set deep within the black glistening rock. Beauty in Hell, thought Evie. Who would have thought that possible?
The trip had taken the better part of the day, and Evie didn't feel like they'd made much progress though, considering they were hovering rather than flying down the rock tube.
Sinners were hurled down this tube, sent falling to their eternal punishment. Falling down this pitch black hole would be punishment enough for Evie, considering it wasn't exactly a wide space. Evie shuddered and shivered. In her mind's eyes she saw a punished soul falling in the darkness, hitting and bouncing off the rock-faces with every bend and turn of the tunnel. A person would be seriously damaged by the time they reached the bottom. If not seriously dead. But they'd be dead before they got here ... Evie frowned in confusion then put the thoughts out of her head.
The heat battered her hard. Immortal or not, the heat that could certainly have melted the feathers off her wings considering she wasn't as powerful as an Archangel. Flying too fast toward the heat would allow the molten air to penetrate her silken feathers to the tender skin covering the bones of her wings. In all its elegant and angelic glory, a Nephilim's wings were still a biological structure, functioning not much different to the wings of a bird. A slower descent prevented the heated air from reaching the skin where feather met pore, where the feathers could melt right off their wings.
Gavriel, straight-backed and silent, showed no sign of tiring on his reluctant journey. Heat burned her already parched skin, drying out her eyes and making it difficult to blink. Even her throat was gritty and sand-paper-like. Swallowing did nothing to moisten her mouth and throat. The heat seemed to suck every drop of moisture from her entire body. She was breathing hot air- in and out as if she was within the heart of a volcano.
At last Gavriel slowed his pace to a stop and Evie lowered herself to him. The hole had widened enough to allow Evie to reach eye-level with him. And to see that they had reached the ground, not a few feet below her heels.
They dropped to the stone floor and Gavriel walked off, leaving Evie to hurry after him. Casting desiccated eyes around she confirmed what her instinct had been insisting. They were standing beside a pool of boiling lava that spat and spluttered red molten rock.
Evie blinked, and was surprised that her eyelashes and eyebrows weren't singed off her face by now. A tortured howling scream echoed on the darkened air, the sound twisting and turning around her. Evie did not scare easily. She killed demons and bad guys for a living. But that scream scraped a sharpened nail along a deeper visceral nerve, bringing a cold film to her skin.
She stayed close behind Gavriel. He seemed invulnerable here. Head held high, so sure of himself in a place no angel should ever set foot. In the distance, scorched mountains rose, hiding the black valley from whatever it was that lay beyond.
To their right rose a hill. A man made his way up the incline, bare feet streaked with blood as they slipped against polished black sand. His arms bulged, muscles quivering as he pushed an enormous boulder up the mountain, and struggled to maintain his footing. His body was covered with a film of moisture, whether from his exertions or the current climate of Tartarus it didn't matter.
He grunted as he pushed, a vein at his temple throbbed threateningly as the boulder moved a foot, then two. Then it stopped and so did the man, who turned around, supporting the rock at his back with his body as he rested. His face was overgrown with a beard as long as he was tall. A beard which hid skin darkened by smudges of soot and black sand. He dragged a muscle-bound arm across his forehead, re-distributing the soot on his face and wiping off the beads of sweat which had collected there. The man sighed and turned to face his burden. The muscles in his limbs bunched and the veins on his arms distended as he pushed the rock again.
"Don't make a sound." Gavriel spoke softly, clearly loath to disturb the poor man. The empathy in Gavriel's face was enough to shut her up. So she kept her silence and watched.
As the man turned his head, Evie caught a glimpse of his eyes. In those grey orbs she saw despair, exhaustion, hopelessness. She gasped at the anguish painted clearly upon his strained features. He hissed as he breathed out, pushing with all his might, the vein at his temple throbbing harder. At last, after what seemed an eternity, the man reached the summit and sank to the ground, the muscles in his arms and legs quivering with exhaustion.
After a few minutes he rose, casting his eyes about for something, one arm supporting the rock. Just then the ground trembled. And with it the boulder. It rolled back and forth, rocking with the quake. That was all it took for the rock to be sent over the edge and roll, ever faster down the hill. At the peak, the man stared helplessly after the tumbling rock, tears of despair filling his slate-like eyes.
He made a slight motion with one shoulder that Evie would have thought was a tired impression of a shrug, then made his way down the hill, resignation bowing his shoulders and thinning his eyes. At the foot of the hill he faced the boulder like an opponent in battle, steeling himself as he began to push the boulder back up the hillside.
"Why is he doing that?" Evie could no longer contain her curiosity and spoke in hushed tones.
"Do you not know who he is?" Gavriel raised an eyebrow. When Evie shook her head he continued, "That is Sisyphus, who for his arrogance has been punished with pushing this boulder up that hill for all eternity. And for all eternity, as soon as he reaches his destination, the boulder will be sent rolling back down the hill for him to repeat his task."
Evie was slack jawed. "Harsh."
"It pays never to be arrogant toward the gods then, doesn't it?" Gavriel countered. Evie wanted to counter with her current opinion of the gods but thought it best to keep quiet given her current location.
They left Sisyphus to his eternal punishment and walked on. Gavriel skirted a bubbling lava pool and strode toward a cave just ahead. The entrance rose before them like the black mouth of some evil monster. The edges of the entry-way were even trimmed with sharp stalactites, huge terrifyingly sharp teeth from a n
ightmare best forgotten. A cacophony of shrill screams and hopeless moans rose and fell within the warren of caves as they stepped inside the evil mouth. The sound echoed back and forth so mournfully it raised the hairs on Evie's neck.
Evie leaned toward Gavriel and asked softly, "So where do we find him?" It wasn't as if the corridor of black rock was marked with room numbers in fluorescent red.
Gavriel walked ahead in silence, and Evie clenched her jaw shut. He didn't want her here so he certainly wasn't going to make things easy on her. Best to just leave things as they were. The last thing she wanted to do was piss him off badly enough for him to change his mind and take her right back to Hades. This needed to be done and soon.
Before she lost her nerve.
Chapter 17
Gavriel led Evie through another warren of passageways, so similar to those of Hades palace, and yet so different. The heat was all-encompassing. Every breath Evie took was heavily laced with warm moisture. Her lungs were sure to rebel soon but she followed in silence.
Despite the chilling wails, Evie continued moving forward in the darkness. Their feet fell on stone, carved into a smooth passage by thousands of doomed feet. The walls were close on either side of them and Evie marveled at the carvings. The stone was black as the midnight sky, uneven throughout, and carved into the surface were the faces of a thousand men. Could that be a tribute of sorts to specific souls? Evie's feet slowed in their trotting to keep up with Gavriel. Her fascinated eyes remained trained on the realistic workmanships of the craft-men who had hewn such lifelike faces from rough rock.
Evie drew closer to the face of the wall. Closer to one carving, rendered at eye level. If she touched it the dull, grey skin would be leathery, hanging wrinkled from high cheekbones. As if it belonged to a man used to generous second helpings, who of a sudden was forced to starve. Skin folded at the corners of his eyes and wrinkled at his forehead, doubled below his chin. He looked in Evie's direction as if caught in the act of watching them pass.
Evie stood transfixed, staring at the carvings eyes. Both were shut while every wrinkled and pore was visible. Even the individual hairs of his eyelashes lay resting on his dull cheeks. The rendition was so life-like, Evie half expected to see the carving come to life. What skill of the carvers to create such a masterpiece here within the depths of Death.
All along the passage were thousands of similar carvings, each so different, so realistic.
Something caught Evie's eye. A movement? Light flickering on something? She looked back at the wall and at the carved face she had just inspected so closely.
And the hairs at the back of her neck lifted.
Then man stared back at her solemnly.
The whites were milky, unblemished by red blood vessels. Pitch black pupils bled like liquid smoke into the rest of the eye, threatening to overwhelm the whites. The face still looked down the passage while the eyes stared straight at Evie. She blinked, certain this was just her overactive imagination. Especially when the pair of eyes staring at her out of the stone wall held an expression of a sad combination of despair and hope.
Then he smiled.
A pathetic, gross attempt at a smile that revealed a toothless black orifice and leathery flaccid lips curled in a grin better described as a grimace. Evie stepped back in horror. The macabre face was no carving after all. This was a man, embedded within the stone wall. Evie's muscles tightened as she turned to run. A distant part of her brain registered her direction was all wrong. She was heading in the direction of the entrance while Gavriel was way ahead of her somewhere within the tunnels. At that moment it didn't matter. Sooner or later he will realize she was not in his exalted company and then he would return for her.
She may have gotten away if the hand had not grabbed her ankle. As she fell she looked down at the hand that gripped her foot. Cold, thin gnarled fingers, covered by loose, grey skin, held her ankle in it's creepy grip. Dozens and dozens of faces stared at her as she fell, hundred's of eyes observed her descent. Hundreds of hands reached for her body, desperate to grab hold of her.
Evie was equally desperate to get away, but she was caught in something of a trance. Watching the hand scratch at her body with bloody fingers. Her blood. Glistening at the tips of fingers bare of skin, where chipped nails that scraped at Evie like tiny knives, scraping at her flesh, releasing the blood as if they ached for the source of life. She began to breathe faster and harder. She was still falling. Braced herself for the impact with the stone floor, helpless to stop her journey. The hands still grasped her, fingers digging painfully into her calf.
Suddenly another pair of arms seemed to sprout from the passage floor, curving around her just as she fell. Hysterical with fear Evie scratched and scrabbled to get free from the hands despite their warmth and gentleness.
"Shh. Calm down. It is just me." Gavriel touched her arm, his cool angelic skin immediately calming. Only long enough kick out at the hand which still clung to her ankle. In one flick of a heel she dislodged the arms from both her ankle and the face on the wall. The hand went spinning across the floor, still grabbing at the air in the vain hope of clutching onto something to stop its spin. Evie stared, repulsed but transfixed as it came to a sudden stop against the opposite wall. "Did I not tell you to keep close?"
"I thought I saw something," she answered, without looking at Gavriel. Her eyes remained on the twitching hand that now reminded her of an injured spider.
"And you did." Gavriel nodded at the walls. A thousand faces carved into the walls, eyes closed and silent. Anyone would think she had imagined it all.
"Did you see it too?" Evie was desperate for Gavriel to confirm she was not crazy.
Gavriel was silent and Evie's heart plummeted. But when he answered he said, "Tartarus is filled with billions of dead. The very walls of the place are built with their bodies."
He got his feet and she rose with him until at last she was standing on two wobbly legs. Still shaken, she eyed the walls, just to make certain they were no longer alive.
"Stay close to me and as far away from the walls as possible." Gavriel started walking, the angle at which he held his head more relaxed, which Evie took as a sign that his anger was slowly dissipating .
She followed his instructions and soon they were striding along the dark passage. Evie smiled. Gavriel had saved her butt again.
The passage came to an abrupt end and had it not been for Gavriel standing firmly in front of her she would have fallen straight over the edge. The passage ended at a tiny outcropping, no balustrade, no balcony. To their right, a set of tiny stairs hugged the cliff-face and meandered downward.
Evie peered around Gavriel and gasped. Below them was a ravine where jagged spikes of rock reached skyward, beckoning for their next victim's impalement. Pale bodies were scattered around the base of the canyon, all speared through by the spikes.
And all very much alive and very much in agony.
Chapter 18
Evie averted her gaze and looked straight ahead. A deep valley expanded before her eyes, dark and foreboding. Across the valley, directly ahead of them, sat a black temple, complete with gleaming obsidian columns. From this side of the valley they could still make out the vipers coiled around the columns and writhing in a heap along the steps. Evie shuddered.
The serpent encased stairway was their destination. To their left was a winding flight of stairs hewn straight from the rock-face. It was wide enough for one person but so small that the slightest wrong step would send her plummeting to her death. Thankfully they wouldn't need to get through the jagged ravine by foot.
"We are flying right?" she asked.
"Only until we reach the edge of the rift valley. From there on we have to make it by foot," Gavriel answered, his voice low.
At Evie's frown he said, "Flying would attract attention. And attention is not what we want. Not here."
Evie nodded. Better not to say anything and get Gavriel back on edge. Since he'd saved her from those horrible questing d
ead hands, he had been much gentler with her. They'd spoken a few times. Yes. Definitely gentler.
They released their wings in a sudden rush of air and angel dust. The sounds of two soft implosions announced their release.
Evie sighed and Gavriel sighed with her. Both were relieved. It was always this way. As long as her wings were tucked away she felt bound, constricted as if she were holding her breath constantly. Now, with her wings stretched out behind her she could breathe at last.
Then they stepped off the edge in unison and made short work of the distance over the ravine. It didn't take long before they arrived at the last deep passageway that opened into the bared fields of the valley. In a whoosh that resembled soft thunder, Gavriel landed and quickly tucked his wings behind his back. Evie followed suit and peered around his shoulder.
"Great, another bleak dead valley, does the scenery never change here?" she asked softly. She shouldn't have bothered to ask the question because she already knew the answer.
"There is Asphodel and Elysium. But neither of those places would ever keep Daniel. Ever." He spoke with a certain satisfaction as if he was well pleased that Daniel would be denied entrance to the two places of peace and beauty within the walls of the realms of Hell.
"Once we enter the valley be sure to remain quiet. Do not talk to anyone. Try not to turn anyone's attention to you." Gavriel frowned, his face dark and serious.
"Sure thing." Evie smiled assuringly. Then she schooled her features as worry stabbed her gut. Gavriel's face was far too serious for any further banter.
They left the safety of the rock wall and walked up a barren road. The valley heaved and fell with hundreds of small hills and hillocks, divided by dozens of small streams of bubbling lava. Evie could just make out, in the distance, a gurgling stream, pulsing away from them, out of the valley.
