Going Deep

by L. J. Vickery

  Chapter Twenty

  Holly saw Lenore stumble and her face lit up. “What is it?”

  “I’ve got him!” Lenore had been pacing the chamber, now empty of the latest version of demons they had defeated. She had been standing on high promontories, ducking into low gullies, and testing the farthest reaches of the room when she tripped on her six-inch heels.

  “You do?” Holly practically jumped out of her skin. “Let me hear him!” Lenore opened her mind, and Holly heard Dagon’s voice, loud and clear.

  Lenore! Is that you?

  You bet it is, boss man! Glad to know you’re alive. I’ve got a girl here who’s hungry to hear from you. Any words I can relay?

  Enlil and Lenore did high fives, while Holly bit the inside of her cheek and waited. How would Dagon take the fact that she’d come to Hell for him?

  Tell her…tell her I love her, and I’m coming for her and nothing will stop me.

  His words quickly dispelled Holly’s fears. She sobbed, and put a hand to her throat. Dagon loved her. She’d known it, deep down, but to hear him say it—not just to her, but to Lenore and Enlil—made it very real.

  She got it, big guy. Lenore winked, answering when Holly’s head voice failed her. And just as an FYI, she now knows about the amulets and the Chosen thing. Ereshkigal spilled the beans, then Tess and I filled in the blanks.

  Shit. How’s she taking it?

  Like a woman in love, Holly said, but she wasn’t proficient enough in head-speak to have it travel all the way to Dagon. She whimpered her frustration. Lenore continued as go-between.

  For some fucked up reason, she says she loves you too. Lenore smirked at Holly. But don’t think she’s not going to kick your ass a little before admitting it. She’s pissed that you didn’t tell her anything before gallantly sacrificing yourself for the cause. You gods can be such arrogant pricks when it comes to the whole protecting your Chosen thing.

  You know we have no choice. Dagon was clearly not going to argue the point with Lenore, and Holly smiled at the knowledge that Dagon was really hers…he wanted to keep her from harm. She settled down with a warm feeling in the pit of her stomach while he continued.

  Speaking of which, I owe Anshar a huge debt for letting you come here, even if it was part of Nergal’s decree.

  Heard about that, did you? Lenore wondered.

  Yeah. Ereshkigal informed me of all the terms, including the fact that you are to become a prisoner. How do you think Anshar’s going to feel once Enlil pops home and tells him you’re in Nergal’s cage?

  Pretty happy…and proud…after Enlil reveals what I have planned. Haven’t you been around me long enough to know that I always have an angle?

  Dagon laughed and then sobered. You be very careful. Dealing with Nergal is not always as easy as it appears. He changed the subject. How’s Holly holding up?

  She’s doing just fine, and right now grinning like a fool because I’ve been letting her listen to everything you’ve said.

  Dagon groaned, but smiled too. He couldn’t feel badly that Holly knew the depth of his devotion.

  You’ll be proud to know that she dispatched several demons of her own this morning…not to say they were the most lethal kind, but she’s got a nice way with a blade. We have yet to meet up with the real bad-asses, but Enlil has been schooling us on what to expect.

  Tell her I’ll make everything up to her, Dagon promised. I won’t rest until she’s back safely with her sister and brother.

  She knows all that, you big idiot. She wouldn’t be here otherwise, now would she? Being slated as your Chosen, she has her duties too.

  Dagon felt humbled. He thanked Lenore, signed off, and chose a different mental pathway, cutting Lenore—and hence, Holly—out of the equation. Enlil? I know you’ll tell me straight. How are things, really? Lenore likes to color everything with a pink paintbrush.

  In this particular instance, Enlil assured him, Lenore is not making anything up. The demons we’ve battled have been easy to overcome with the osmium arsenal we’ve brought. We’ve also packed some hypodermics to sedate one of each type. We’ve been finding out where their immortality-makers are hidden, then we slice and dice, doing away with the entire bunch. Very effective. We have a few more tricks up our sleeves for the nastiest breeds. I have no doubt we’ll be seeing you soon. How have you been faring on your end?

  I’ve met up with the most amazing demons. I call them glowies. They’ve been invaluable allies. You can’t help but like them, and one of the first things I’m going to do after knocking Nergal’s teeth down his throat, will be to make sure he improves their existence.

  Enlil interrupted. I might have a bargaining chip for you. Do you have any idea what a stone idol with Eresh on one side and Nergal on the other would be used for? It’s got some kind of weird energy that immediately caught Erra’s attention and had the whole compound jazzed. It’s completely calmed down since being in the Underworld, but none of us have ever seen anything like it.

  All the gods were very old, and it was hard to remember everything they’d ever come across, but Dagon recalled being fascinated with just such a thing when a small boy.

  The old king and queen, Ereshkigal’s parents, had one with their likenesses carved into it. Is it about six inches tall?

  He got an affirmative from Enlil.

  The king used to wear it on a thong around his neck. Sometimes he’d come to visit my parents and I’d sit on his lap and play with it. As far as I know, he never took it off.

  It sounds similar. So this might be something quite valuable to Nergal. Enlil’s excitement was palpable through the mind-link. It could be a game changer down here if he tries to double cross you. Remind me to give it to you as soon as we meet up since they’ll be sending me home.

  Sounds good. We’ll keep in touch now that we’re getting closer to each other.

  Where exactly are you? Enlil, like all the gods, had only been on the first level of Hell and didn’t have a clue as to where Dagon might be.

  Since we’re communicating, I have to assume that we’re less than ten miles apart. With the help of my friends, I’ve already breached two portals separated vertically by five miles each. By tomorrow, I hope to have passed through another, which will put me just one level below you.

  So if we make it to the portal door on our side, leading down, Enlil speculated, we could meet up with you within a day.

  Enlil might have an idea of where the downward path might be, but Dagon didn’t want to think about the demons who would be guarding it. They would be particularly lethal, and a variety the gods had never bested in battle.

  Don’t even think about it. You stay on the top level and keep Holly safe. I have an army of thousands behind me and we’ll get to you soon enough. There was silence from Enlil.

  Enlil! Enlil? Do you hear me?

  A big sigh broke through the airwaves. I’m trying to be reasonable, Dagon. You have an army, but what kind of weapons are you sporting, and do any of your new friends have supernatural powers? Be honest.

  We have almost 300 non-osmium blades between us and no superpowers that I know of. Dagon answered.

  …so these demons will slice through all of you like butter. Listen to me. I have sedatives, osmium, the gift that you first gave to Anshar when you held him prisoner—Enlil obviously didn’t want Nergal, if he snooped, to know about the collar. Neither did the uber-god yet know about another thing he would mention, which figured in Lenore’s future plans for the oblivious king—and Lenore’s special ability.

  Dagon understood. It does seem that you’re better equipped, but I can’t help but be nervous. An idea dawned. Enlil, what if we timed it so that we attacked from above and below at the same time?

  Now there’s a plan I can get behind. Enlil took a minute, and on a channel that he then opened between them, Dagon listened as the god explained to the women what they had been discussing.

  Dagon had only one thing to add. Please be careful when we merge not to mi
stake any of my glowie demons for the enemy. Dagon gave them a quick description of the group who had been helping him, and received assurances that Lavarette and friends would be safe.

  All too soon it was time to sign off and make the next big move. Dagon and his group still had one more level to reach before the big, double-sided battle could even be contemplated. What would be waiting for them this time?

  The champions had scouted ahead, and it was too quiet. No sign of any dead-human activity showed in the vicinity of the next doorway, nor any smell, sounds, or chilled air. This could be bad news. If the doomed souls held so far back from this area, there must be some great evil they had learned to avoid; an evil that gave off no hint of what it might be.

  Dagon stepped boldly up to the portal, calling out as he had done before.

  “Demons, I ask safe entrance to your domain. I seek King Nergal and wish to pass through without causing you harm.”

  The guards must have heard about him and his gang by now, and he gave false assurance that they could stay alive if they would give his group peaceful passage. He received no answer.

  “Come out. Show yourselves.” Not a sound or an odor wafted through the doorway.

  There was only one thing to do. Dagon would enter and hope his senses hadn’t let him down.

  Lavarette spoke out against it. “You, of all of us, must survive,” she reasoned. “If our collective is to have any chance at a better existence, it will only be due to your entreaty to the king. Without you, our group is nothing.”

  “That’s not true, Lavarette. In your society, I have seen bravery, perseverance, selflessness, and love. These are things that many beings I have met over the centuries lack….myself included,” he said contritely. “I have every confidence that, without me, you will continue.”

  She focused her dark, round eyes on Dagon. “What you say may be true, Master Dagon, but what you have given us is more than strength. You have given us hope. If the collective loses you now, believe me, we will sink back into our old existence.” Before he could argue, she continued. “Please let me be the one, with my core few, to breach the portal first. I beg of you.”

  The rest of the collective in his head waited for his answer. He gave in graciously.

  “I reluctantly accede to your wishes, but please be careful.” He reached a hand toward Lavarette, laying his fingers on her arm. He remembered being touched by one glowie before, but was still astounded at the warm, watery feeling under his hand and the sensation of well-being that spread up his arm. A hug from one of these guys and you’d never care if you went anywhere else.

  Lavarette nodded to five of her captains and they entered, knives raised. Seconds ticked by and then minutes. No sound could be heard beyond the arched stones. Dagon was about to go in after them, when Lavarette poked her head back out.

  “We find nothing, master.” She seemed as puzzled as Dagon. This was much too easy and not like Nergal at all. “My troops have scoured out to a half mile and have found no trace of demon activity.”

  Was Nergal waiting to get them all in the same place, devoid of any other beings, and cause an earthquake to entomb them? He didn’t think so. Even Nergal would understand that a couple thousand hands could dig their way out of anything, given enough time. So what was his plan? Fire? Flood? No. That couldn’t be it either. From what Ereshkigal had inferred about this “game,” Nergal was not allowed to kill him outright. He had to use other hands to do the deed. So where did that leave him?

  “I’m going in.” Dagon watched as all the champions went through, as well as the advance guard of workers. He got in line behind Lavarette and ducked through the doorway.

  Something was bound to happen. He needed to stay alert but it was hard to do as the chattering glowies streamed in behind him, suddenly amazed when they noticed the small bits of flora that clung to the walls of this level. They’d never seen anything green before, and Dagon, caught up in the wonder of their moment, gave them approval to sample the greenery. Soon, this chamber and the one beyond spilled over with glowies as opaque hands plucked the foliage from the walls and mouths tucked into fronds as if it proved to be the finest delicacy in hell. And who’s to say it wasn’t?

  The first warning sign came when Dagon unsuccessfully tried to contact Enlil. His brain seemed sluggish and refused to make the connection. He tried again, then called to Lavarette.

  “Say something to me on your collective channel.”

  Several moments passed, and her puzzled look told him that whatever she’d been trying to get through to him had not made it.

  “There’s something wrong,” he spoke aloud, trying not to panic. “A force is slowly invading my head.” He heard an evil laugh and looked up. A string of nearly invisible wraiths separated themselves from the cavern ceiling.

  That’s right, fallen god. The words rocked inside his emptying head. And we won’t stop until your brain is sucked dry. We are demon mind-worms, and once we take all that is yours, you will be an empty shell. It paused in its taunting. A feast, my brothers. The gray matter of a god. Never have we tasted anything so sweet.

  Dagon saw the glowies ineffectually swiping at the ghost like creatures as they surrounded him. The evil things wafted right through his friend’s valiant attempts at combat.

  “Master! What can we do? They are impervious to our weapons!”

  “Can you not hear them?” Dagon screamed, covering his ears as if that might block them out. “They are eating away at my thoughts, pulling at all my memories. I must resist them. I…must…resist…”

  Dagon fell to his knees as the glowies stood by, helplessly watching. Mouths that had been feeding on manna hung open in impotence.

  “What can we do?” Minrella wailed. What can we do? The chant was taken up by hundreds, and hundreds more…then thousands of collective voices.

  The hold on Dagon’s head suddenly lessened. He turned tear-filled eyes to Lavarette, who somehow understood.

  Collective! Raise your voices together and enter our Master Dagon’s brain. Drive the spirits from him. Give them no room to feed.

  The space in Dagon’s head filled, but no longer by the evil wraiths. It brimmed with the peeling of church bells, the shouts of an exultant crowd seeing their soldiers home from war, the cries of small babies, and love songs of the innocent. All this Dagon heard, and the evil became surrounded, contained, and within what seemed like the blink of an eye but also an eternity, it was jettisoned from him. The wraiths withered away under the intensity of sound, the likes of which―Dagon was sure―they had never before encountered.

  Dagon heard Enlil’s voice, and Lenore’s, and the gods up in the compound on earth. He heard Ereshkigal and Nergal, Erra and a female voice he didn’t recognize. Finally, above all else, he heard the voice of his Chosen.

  I love you. Holly declared. I love you, and soon we will be together.

  Dagon was so overwhelmed, he did the only thing possible under the circumstances. He lost consciousness, rocked in the warm, watery, and ultimately healing arms of the all-encompassing collective.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Marduk paced one way. Anshar paced the other. The two gods had never felt so impotent. People they loved were sequestered in hell. No gods, but two humans traipsed the countryside to find more Chosen. And all the while, Erra had the entire compound wrapped up tighter than a drum. Any forays outside their immediate borders led to bloody skirmishes Marduk was unwilling to risk without Doctor Dani in the house to patch up the wounded. Things pretty much sucked big time.

  Marduk talked Anshar into taking out their frustrations with a couple of hammers, lending more muscle to Kulla’s construction project. As they went to join the crew, Marduk wondered what Erra’s next move would be.

  The war god probably got really tired of camping out in the woods, avoiding hikers and bicyclists who inadvertently wandered by. It was one thing to have the god’s house surrounded by Erra’s PP, an entirely different prospect to be on call 24/7 as the
only one who could sense if the gods decided to come and go.

  Marduk chuckled to himself. No one had foreseen, when Erra had come on board, that Dagon would change sides. After that kick in the ass, Erra was on his own, god-wise.

  Erra’s second-in-command, Matthew―a truly devious human―was just the kind of minion Erra liked best. According to Dagon, Matthew made a versatile right hand man. He knew computers, would take on any dirty job, and―best of all―was motivated by money.

  Right now, he was nowhere in sight, and Marduk hoped he wasn’t somehow tailing Huxley and Dani-Lee. If Kulla’s attempt to distract Erra and company―while Lahar went to give their mortal friends orders to head to Northampton―had somehow failed, they were screwed.

  When that strange energy had emerged from the idol, Marduk and the gods put themselves on hyper-alert, so it stood to reason that Erra did too.

  Marduk dropped his hammer. Tess came with food. He found a spot under a tree with Anshar where they dug into nourishment and monitored Kulla’s work on the cottages from afar. He chewed his first bite and got a headful of Erra.

  Kulla? Are you here, working?

  The thunder god grunted, waiting to see what the war god would want from his supreme architect.

  I am, Kulla answered. The goddess, Tess has just delivered a large platter of food to Marduk and Anshar, the only gods who can eat, but the rest of us have laid down our hammers to catch a quick midday siesta under the trees. If you need to talk, I’ll forgo the nap…and bring you a sandwich.

  A sandwich? Erra clearly hadn’t heard the term before, and couldn’t recall it from the dictionary Dagon said the god had attempted to cram into his brain.

  Kulla gave a laugh. I’d forgotten that you weren’t around to see the advent of “trenchers” in the middle ages. It’s a kind of bread bowl filled with food, which went on to become the modern-day sandwich. Kulla continued. Think of two pieces of thick fluffy matzah with meat between them.

  I’m still confused, Marduk heard him send.

  Wait where you are. I’ll join you momentarily.