“Icanitzu,” Arturus said suddenly, “I think.”
“The dyitzu, they got in front of us!” Aaron shouted.
The dyitzu came pouring into the chamber, appearing from beyond the tower. Galen’s MP5 came alive, firing round after round. Aaron also let loose, but the rest held their fire, trying to conserve bullets which otherwise would have almost certainly missed their targets. The dyitzu fireballs came rolling in, some of them impacting with the stalagmites, splattering flames in waves across the room. Galen kicked off of one wall, tipping the raft upwards so that several of the fireballs impacted with its underside. The priestess shouted, holding onto the raft. It came down, squelching the fire and making the water uncomfortably warm.
The dyitzu by the river bend were calling to each other. They began jumping into the water.
“We can’t make it!” Aaron shouted.
The wavy blue light which was cast up onto the room’s ceiling from the river was suddenly filled with darting dyitzu shadows.
“They’re coming,” Johnny warned.
Arturus caught sight of the devils, not more than a hundred feet away, as they swam around the river bend.
We’re going to die.
“Out of the water!” Galen shouted, shoving the raft to their left.
Arturus and Duncan helped, kicking mightily, driving the raft—and the priestess with it—onto the shore. Galen was out of the river in an instant, water droplets flying all around him. He reached back in, pulling Turi and Aaron up. Duncan and Avery dragged themselves onto the bank.
“Avery, AK clip into the water!” Aaron ordered.
“That way!” Galen shouted, pointing diagonally across the chamber, past the tower, to where the river flowed out of the room.
Arturus picked up the back of the door with his free hand while Aaron grabbed the front. Duncan helped the priestess to her feet. The AK-47 reports drowned out all other sounds as they made a break for the exit. The field of stalagmites became denser as they neared the central tower, so Arturus and Aaron had to be careful not to bang the raft against the jutting stones. Arturus caught a glimpse of the priestess, running through a thick set of stalagmites. He saw a nearby dyitzu and loosed a shot, hitting the thing in the shoulder and sending it spinning backwards. Its fireball flew up towards the ceiling.
They were rounding the tower when Aaron halted suddenly, causing Arturus to run shoulder first into the door. As Arturus recovered, he saw what had stopped the hunter.
The Icanitzu was descending. It landed before them, dropping into a kneeling position as its backward jointed legs absorbed the impact of its descent. It spread its wings out wide and low, balancing itself before folding them back behind its shoulders. It stood majestically.
Arturus remembered how long their previous battle with the Icanitzu had taken. There was no time for a conflict like that now. Arturus looked behind him, the dyitzu had come out of the water and were headed towards them.
“No time to stop!” Galen’s voice called from behind them, but having not made it around the tower, he hadn’t seen the Icanitzu yet.
“Go go go!” Galen was shouting as he came around the stalagmite.
He did not stop as he caught sight of the Icanitzu but kept running right at it.
The Icanitzu flared its wings and let out a long howl, its rows of incisor teeth showing as it did so. It advanced.
“Fuck!” Aaron shouted.
Galen, only ten feet away from the Icanitzu, pulled his flare gun and fired, hitting it full in the face. The thing shrieked in pain, dropping into a crouch, covering its body with its wings and its blinded eyes with its arms. Galen gave it a push kick with all the momentum of his run, sending it rolling across the floor.
“Move!” he ordered as he ran by.
They did, sprinting the rest of the way across the chamber. Galen stopped at the bank, raised his MP5 to his shoulder, and started firing behind them. Arturus and Aaron passed him, leaping, door and all, into the water. Avery slung his AK over his shoulder and came in after them. The priestess made a grab for the raft as she jumped, catching onto one of the ropes Galen had used to tie their packs on. Galen dove in, swimming behind the door and pushing it forward. Arturus and Aaron managed together to help the screaming priestess out of the water and onto the raft.
The river was moving faster now, dragging them forward with terrific speed. It pulled them first through one tunnel, and then another, and then another. Fireballs glided over their heads, illuminating each new room as the dyitzu dashed after them.
Aaron and Arturus had found themselves on a side together, and they began kicking. Duncan and Avery followed suit, propelling the raft even faster through the turbulent water. Aaron stopped for a moment, drawing his pistol with one hand, and fired behind them. Arturus watched a dyitzu collapse to the ground, twitching and clawing at the blood covered stones beneath it.
“Careful,” Galen warned. “Keep count of your bullets.”
Aaron fired twice more in the next room before the river began to outrun the dyitzu.
“That Icanitzu will be after us,” Aaron warned.
Arturus looked to his stoic father. Galen’s face betrayed no emotion.
“Will it, father?” Arturus asked.
Aaron let loose another shot before Galen answered. “I don’t know, son. I don’t know.”
Just as long as nobody sees me.
In general Alice did her best not to steal, but after not eating for a couple days, she was willing to make some small compromises with herself. This was actually old hat, in a way. She’d been picked up twice as a teenager for shoplifting. Technically, she hadn’t been allowed in any Wal-Mart in the country—not that they’d noticed when she’d broken the ban a few years later. She’d mention it to her friends as a bit of trivia while they shopped there. It had been her misspent youth, she’d told them.
This time is different. This time I’m starving, and somebody’s going to have to feed Molly.
But this time she wasn’t stealing from a faceless corporate entity. This time she was stealing from Rick.
It’s not like I’m the first person to do this to him.
Rick should actually be thankful for her level of self-control. The Hungerleaf Grove was his worst kept secret. In fact, the grove was so well known that if one were to have an appointment with Galen or Rick, or even Arturus, it was common to meet them here.
When times were tough, many villagers would pinch a few leaves to trade. They’d tried to keep it unnoticeable before the famine, but now the grove looked almost wholly picked over. Thin, spidery branches reached out from their slimy, grey scaled trunks, almost totally devoid of foliage. Only the highest branches still had leaves, and most of those were out of her reach. She could even see where a few branches had been broken, presumably while someone had been bending them down so that they could reach the hungerleaves. One of those broken branches was on the ground and still had a few leaves on it.
She looked out across the mile long chamber as she squatted by the branch. On the day she’d met Turi here, there had been a corpse across the river. The Hungerleaf Grove was set in the middle of an island in a small lake that the Kingsriver flowed through. Arturus had a name for the type of lake it was. Foxbow, or something similar. On that day, the chamber had been filled with mists. Today, ironically, it was as clear as an old world spring.
Satisfied there were no devils—or a Rick—in the chamber, she turned her attention back to the branch.
These should be enough.
She began plucking the leaves. They came off easily, but they had not been separated from their tree for so long as to have dried out. Not that they would rot—unless, of course, a corpse had been through here. She stuffed them into her Hello Kitty satchel.
“Ellen,” a girl’s voice declared.
Alice froze.
Fuck.
If the Fore found out she’d broken a claim, she’d be up for punishment, and Michael Baker wasn’t exactly very pleased with her at the moment
. They might even take her hand. Alice turned and regarded the little brown haired girl which Arturus had taken a liking to.
Ellen was crossing the stepping stones onto the island. Her balance was good, at least. Still, Ellen was new to Hell, and it showed. She was too damn happy, for one thing. Her clothes were pretty clean as well. She wore some old world faded blue jeans which flared out towards her ankles along with a thin, white cotton long sleeve shirt. Her hair was brushed back into a pony tail.
Ellen had been a good friend to Turi, and rumor had it that she’d moved in with Rick after he and the villagers had fixed the Carrion barrier. The Hungerleaf Grove could well be considered her property by the Fore.
Well, I’m caught now.
It was best not to be apologetic about these things, and Alice didn’t feel like having to explain herself to a girl who’d probably just started using tampons.
“You’re looking chipper,” Alice said, trying to keep any guilt out of her voice.
Ellen looked stunned. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“I feel wretched,” Ellen looked away.
Maybe she didn’t notice me stashing the leaves.
“Oh no! Poor girl! Why?” Alice said in her sweetest voice, coming closer to her. “You’ve got it made here. Rick’s taking care of you.”
Ellen shook her head.
Alice could smell aroma of the hungerleaves coming up from her Hello Kitty satchel. Her stomach gave an audible growl. She hoped the odor wasn’t too noticeable. Ellen, for her part, seemed oblivious.
God, is this chick really so dumb? Maybe she doesn’t even know that I’m stealing.
Ellen looked back up at her. “Why won’t the Fore send someone out to the Carrion to get them back?”
“I wish they would, girl,” Alice said. “Everyone’s afraid of the big bad Carrion. They tell stories of it, of how horrible it was. Michael doesn’t want to lose any more hunters.”
“Everyone’s hungry, aren’t they?” Ellen asked.
Alice nodded at first but then shook her head. “Not everyone. Not the people in the Fore.”
“Aaron was a member, wasn’t he?”
Alice felt pressure building up behind her eyes. “Yes.”
Don’t cry in front of her. Keep cool.
“If you two had gotten married,” Ellen was saying, “would you be made a Fore member too?”
Alice frowned. “He was trying to get me to be a Citizen, yes.”
Ellen stopped questioning suddenly, her brown eyes growing wide. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to . . .”
“Ellen, it’s okay.”
“. . . if anyone should understand your grief . . . I have these nightmares where they all come back, except for Turi. Except for Turi.”
Alice took the girl’s hand and tried to give her a soft smile.
Way to go Alice. Way to steal from a grief stricken twit of a teenager.
Ellen had a question, Alice could tell, but the girl didn’t want to ask it.
“Rick,” Turi’s father announced himself as he entered the chamber.
Oh, now I’m fucked for real. The Fore will have my hand for sure.
“Rick!” Ellen shouted.
“Not that loud!” he replied with a smile. “No need to let every demon know my name. How are you girls doing?”
Alice was about to speak, but Ellen cut her off.
“I gave Alice some of our hungerleaves because things are so bad in the village. I hope that’s okay.”
Alice tried to hide her shock.
Thank God. I love this little girl.
Rick nodded. “It’s okay for Alice, but don’t go making a habit of it.”
Ellen smiled and ran up to a tree. She climbed it and began to gather some of the leaves left on the top branches.
Rick walked up beside Alice.
Does he know?
“I think I approve of you two being friends,” he said.
“You weren’t fond of me and Turi spending time together.”
“That was mostly his fault. He liked you too much.”
Ellen slipped a little on the grey bark but caught her balance.
Rick’s eyes narrowed as he watched her. He leaned in closer to Alice and lowered his voice. “How bad is it in the village?”
“Bad.”
“How long until fighting breaks out?”
Alice pondered this for a moment. Ellen was pulling her hands along the branches in order to get the leaves off.
“Hopefully it won’t,” she said finally.
Rick nodded. “That’s answer enough.” He put his hand up to his mouth and called to Ellen. “Come on down, dear, that’s plenty.”
With an agility which surprised Alice, Ellen slipped through the branches and slid down the tree’s trunk.
Alice left the grove with the pair of them and then started her trek home. Ellen had known she was stealing. Ellen had covered for her. She owed the girl something.
But I have nothing to give her.
She tried to swallow her guilt, but it wouldn’t go down.
I’ll find her something.
Her stomach growled. She took out one of the leaves and sucked on it. The sour taste made her stomach even angrier. She looked down into the satchel at the handful of leaves. It wasn’t much, but she could trade it for something, maybe devilwheat or a share of spider eggs if someone had any left.
Something.
Huxley had a good eye, maybe the best eye of all the Harpsborough hunters, but he was new—damn new—and that made Graham a little suspicious when he claimed to have found anything important.
“This had better not be like that healed over hound burrow you thought was a worm’s hole,” Graham warned.
“No, Graham, this is serious. Come on!”
If it’s serious, then how come you’re so bloody cheerful?
Graham shrugged his shoulders and motioned for his two other hunters to follow. They jogged after Huxley as the man made his way down a series of grey hellstone corridors. The rock’s color deepened into a darker grey with a blue undertone while they ran.
After about ten more minutes, Huxley stopped. “Here.”
“Where?” one of Graham’s hunters asked.
Graham didn’t know why the stone in front of him looked fishy, he just knew that it did. He’d learned to trust his instincts on such things. Huxley pushed on the stone wall, and it slid to the side like an old world screen door. Behind it was a small cubbyhole, maybe three feet high and three feet deep. A pile of string and the remains of some devilwheat lay there.
“Great, Huxley,” Graham said, shaking his head. “Real great. Way to find someone’s hideaway.”
“I know, right!” Huxley said smiling. “I thought it wasn’t anything special either, but if you get down in there, you’ll see there’s a slit by the floor. I think they were trying to slide food down it.”
Graham shrugged. “Not interested, Huxley.”
“And I wondered how they were going to get it out if they were storing the food in there. So I tried to get around to see. Couldn’t find a way though, so I thought I’d ask for your help.”
“I’m not interested in busting someone’s stash. That’s their property unless they cede it to the Fore.”
One of the other hunters frowned. “They might have been pulling up the devilwheat, instead of dropping it down.” The hunter bent down into the cubbyhole. “Goes down at about a fifteen degree angle. Be pretty tough to get anything up, but it’s possible. Might go down about ten feet. You know the Fore’s about to change the tax rules. We might be able to catch somebody skimping on taxes. Could be a reward in it.”
“Could be!” Huxley agreed.
“And would you blame someone for skimping on the new taxes?” Graham asked, looking each hunter in the eye. “With times like they are, and with how they’re going to be getting, we’ve got a lot more important things to do than bust someone trying to get some food. This isn’t the time for the Fore to be incre
asing taxes.”
“But we’re hungry too, sir—”
Graham raised his hand suddenly. “Wait.”
His hunters quieted.
“Huxley, where are we?”
“Downstream from town, about a half mile from the Kingsriver.”
Graham started shaking his head.
“What’s up, boss?” Huxley asked.
“It couldn’t be.” Graham started jogging back towards Harpsborough.
The hunters fell in line. They jogged for about ten minutes before Graham recognized the area.
“Shit!” he shouted.
Huxley’s eyes widened. “What, sir?”
Graham grimaced.
That little bitch.
“This is the passage that comes down from the Golden Door,” he said.
The hunters looked amongst each other, bemused.
Huxley’s face lit up with understanding. “You mean someone’s been sending food to where the exiles go. To . . . to the Infidel Friend?”
“Huxley, you lead,” Graham ordered. “Take us back to town, now. We’ve got to let Michael know this right away.”
“But she’s stuck in Harpsborough! She can’t do no more harm!”
“No more than she already has,” Graham said, “and God help us if that includes letting Cris back out of the Golden Door.”
Arturus was shivering from the water’s cold when Galen finally stopped them.
I hate this place.
Arturus peered down the tunnel where the river continued, but it was too dark for him to make anything out. He could hear the sound of rushing water, however, and it seemed like the river’s speed picked up dramatically somewhere in there. Arturus and Aaron clung to the stone bank, keeping the raft still as they pulled themselves out of the water. The stone walls here were made of two foot wide bricks. Typical of the Carrion, the rock which made up those bricks was black and purple. Running through these stones were veins of ruby, however, which Arturus had never seen before. The ruby veins were slightly transparent and appeared to have flecks of other types of stone caught up in them. Galen stayed in the river the longest, helping the priestess up on the bank before getting out himself. They untied the ropes from the floating door and shouldered their packs.
Knight of Gehenna (Hellsong Book 2) Page 4
