Knight of Gehenna (Hellsong Book 2)

by Shaun O. McCoy

  Michael tapped John with his foot. The young boy stirred.

  “Go down and let Rick into the Fore,” Michael Baker ordered him.

  John stood, groggily, and after gaining his balance, rushed downstairs. The boy’s sandals sounded out against the stone as he ran, became muffled for a moment on the dyitzu skin carpets of the parlor room, and returned to being loud again, echoing down the stone stairwell.

  Michael nodded at Rick, who returned the gesture and headed for the door curtain.

  Galen broke into a sprint.

  Oh hell.

  There was nothing to do but chase after him. It was not an easy task for Arturus, even on healthy legs, to keep up. Avery, Aaron, and Johnny Huang were slow to start, falling behind Arturus immediately. Galen did not wait for them, and Arturus found himself torn as to whether he should try and keep up with his father, or lag behind to stay near the others. Soon the choice was made for him. Galen was so far ahead that if Arturus didn’t fall back, the hunters wouldn’t know which passageway to run through.

  The chambers passed by in a blur as they ran. Galen ducked into a short, natural tunnel, which sloped downwards. It was nearly pitch black, but his father didn’t slow down at all. Arturus paused until he heard the other hunters entering the tunnel, then he ran on.

  Galen wouldn’t leave me behind.

  Arturus didn’t notice that the passage he was running in had a dead end until he was only a few feet away from a rock wall. He threw his hands up and rebounded off of the stone. He saw stars in his vision and lost his footing, falling backwards into a seated position. He heard the hunters coming.

  “Stop,” he whispered loudly.

  Aaron and Avery managed to avoid running into him. Arturus rose as quickly as he could and caught Johnny before the short hunter could collide with the wall.

  “Where’s Galen?” Avery said.

  “Up here,” Galen’s voice came down from above.

  Arturus shook his head. Stretching out his fingers, he felt along the wall for handholds. The climb didn’t seem like it would be too hard. He began his ascent. Behind him, Johnny cursed.

  “What are you bitching about?” Arturus heard Avery ask the man.

  “I hate climbing.”

  The wall led them into a tiny chute which spiraled upwards. Jagged rocks caught onto Arturus’ clothes, but the tight confines made the climb easier. At times, when Arturus couldn’t find a handhold, he would just kick out with his legs, wedging his body against the rocks before squirming his way upwards. The chute seemed to be over one hundred feet tall. He could hear the heavy breathing of the hunters behind him. The wheeze from Johnny Huang’s broken nose was particularly loud, but that noise was soon drowned out by the sound of rushing water. The higher they climbed, the louder the water became.

  As Arturus reached up to get his next handhold, he felt a familiar calloused hand grip his wrist. Galen hefted him up onto a landing.

  “Stay quiet,” Galen whispered just loudly enough to be heard over the water. “And stay low.”

  Galen helped the rest of the hunters up as well, repeating his commands to them. After he helped Johnny, Galen looked down the chute. “Where’s Kelly?”

  Aaron sat up and shrugged.

  “I said stay low,” Galen warned harshly, and then he practically dove into the chute.

  Aaron lay back down.

  Arturus pulled himself along the ledge, looking after his father. Then he turned to Aaron, Avery and Johnny. “Did you guys see her?”

  “She was behind me in the tunnel,” Johnny said.

  Arturus crawled past Johnny, trying to take stock of where they were. The chute had set them on a landing that was fairly high up in a large natural chamber. He guessed they were at an intersection between the ruby vein and the skystone vein, because both kinds of stone lit up the chamber. In places the huge room was predominately blue, in others red, and where the two stones were close enough together, a brilliant purple. The lighting made it difficult to judge the distance of the terrain. A river, looking like sapphire in some places and like blood in others, rushed through the room with terrific speed. Arturus felt sure its noise would cover their whispers.

  He looked for exits. If something other than his father came up that chute, Arturus guessed that he might be able to make the jump into the water. Then, if he survived the fifty foot fall and was somehow able to get out of the water, he would have a hundred foot dash before he made it to an exit.

  He saw movement in the chamber out of his peripheral vision.

  Dyitzu.

  Four or five had entered so far, and Arturus had no idea how many more there might be. They seemed peculiarly dark in color, and more hunched than any dyitzu he’d seen before. Their stub wings appeared more pronounced too. Not full enough to fly, but oddly oversized. Their arms were longer, and hung down almost to their knees. One, the most misshapen of them all, actually used his arms as an extra set of legs to move across the chamber. It cupped its hands together and raised some of the river to its lips.

  Arturus slid slowly back onto the landing, flattening himself against the cold, hard stone.

  “Dyitzu,” Arturus warned.

  Aaron, lying on his back, pushed his way to the edge before looking down and over his shoulder at the scene below. He moved away immediately.

  “They’re pouring in,” he reported.

  Johnny and Avery didn’t even bother looking. They just froze.

  Aaron dared another peek before scooting back, his eyes wide. He said nothing.

  Arturus heard scraping coming from the chute. He drew his razor. Galen climbed up, the priestess clinging to him, her arms wrapped around his neck.

  “Dyitzu,” Arturus warned.

  “I know,” Galen replied.

  Kelly’s face was covered in snot and tears. The sprint and the climb could not have been easy on her ribs. Those tears were running down her face, though she was not sobbing. She looked lost. Arturus turned to the hunters.

  Hell, we all look lost.

  “Hundreds of them,” Aaron whispered, pointing behind him.

  Galen nodded.

  Kelly’s mouth opened like she was going to scream.

  Please stay quiet.

  Arturus felt his heart beating quickly in his chest. He wanted to help her. He wanted to relieve her pain. He wanted to go home. Slowly, he reached out and touched her hand. Their eyes met as her mouth hinged opened and closed with her silent agony. She gripped his hand fiercely—so fiercely that Arturus thought his fingers might break—but he didn’t care.

  I hate you, Devil, that you let such suffering occur in your Hell.

  After a few minutes, her breathing slowed, and her tears stopped coming. She let go of his hand and rolled over into a seated position. She cradled her ribs with her arms and rocked back and forth, snot still covering her face.

  The Carrion is wearing us down. It won’t be much longer before it takes us all.

  Galen cast a glance over the ledge and then moved back.

  “Hundreds,” he reported. “How many shells did we pick up?”

  “Ten,” whispered Avery, “and they’re all in my shotgun. I gave all my .300 shells to Aaron.”

  “And I’ve got this.” Johnny said, holding up the pistol Galen had given him.

  I’ve got no ammo, and Galen and Aaron are the only ones who have their original rifles. Avery must have dropped his in the run.

  Worse than that, Johnny Huang, Avery, and Aaron had all lost their packs and canteens in the river. For his part, Arturus had lost everything but his canteen and his razor. Only Galen had managed to keep his supplies intact.

  Arturus heard a few echoed clicks of dyitzu claws over the sound of the rapids below. He tensed suddenly and held his breath. No one spoke for a long time.

  “Are there any humans with those dyitzu down there?” Johnny asked.

  Galen shook his head. “Can’t say for sure, but I didn’t see any.”

  “But the men and demons see
med like allies at the battlefield. Is Maab working with the devils?”

  Galen pursed his lips as he thought about it. “No. Maab is an evil woman, perhaps the most evil woman I have ever met. She gives no thought to the happiness of anyone but herself, but even she would not cavort with devils.”

  Kelly nodded her agreement.

  “So who are they, then?” Aaron asked.

  “I don’t know,” Galen said, “but it looks like Maab’s men got the upper hand on them, at least for that one battle. Let us hope that continues, because if it does not, Maab will not quietly go into her next damnation. More likely she’ll flee and seek the resources of more peaceful lands.”

  “Lands like Harpsborough.” Aaron said.

  “Yes, like Harpsborough.”

  Galen’s eyes suddenly narrowed, and his head perked up.

  “What?” Arturus asked.

  “I know where we are,” Galen said. “Come, we’ve rested enough. Follow me.”

  Galen crawled back into the chute. Arturus stayed behind the hunters this time, determined to help Kelly. For a second, he thought she might not go, but her face became as expressionless as a statue, and then she climbed in.

  At first they traveled back down, but not for long. Galen had them rising again shortly. This time the landing they came to was at an entrance to a spiral staircase. It was lit by a dull, grey ambient light and was only wide enough for one person to traverse. The center of the steps had been worn down as if the feet of many thousands of men had somehow compressed the stone. Arturus doubted this structure was made by Hell’s architect. The stone walls were too irregular, the steps too uneven. But as to why someone would build a staircase in this place, Arturus had no idea. Perhaps there had been a complex here once, and the rest of it had fallen down.

  After another few hundred feet, the stairway emptied out into a completely natural cave which was lit only by a few flecks of skystone.

  Kelly collapsed, again in tears. She reached out, and Arturus grasped her hand again. Johnny noticed, shaking his head in disapproval. Galen grunted, though, so Arturus knew he was doing the right thing.

  “That’s as good a trail break as we’re likely to find,” Galen said. “No hound will be following us through there, and only a very determined dyitzu would complete such a climb. Finish off the water we have, and we’ll sleep for two shifts.”

  Arturus took a sip from his canteen and then passed it to Johnny. Johnny drank from it deeply.

  “Arturus, you take first watch,” Galen said. “I’ll take the second.”

  It seemed odd to Arturus that Galen would pick him over Aaron for the duty. Maybe Galen thought that since Aaron’s feet were still hurting from the silverlegs, he would need more rest.

  “Come on Turi,” his father said, “follow me. I’ll show you the chamber you have to watch over. It’s an amazing thing.”

  Michael set himself down in his favorite chair before looking upon the chess board the boy Turi had fashioned. The water clock on the far wall kept time, ticking along with the beat of John’s sandals as the boy ran up the stairs. He listened for Rick’s footsteps, but didn’t hear them. The man must have been caught up doing something below.

  It was so dark in the parlor room that he was having difficulty making out the chess pieces. Mancini must have been the last one to bed the night before, leaving his customary amount of blankets on the light orbs.

  Michael heard John approach him and saw the boy’s shadow out of the corner of his eye.

  John touched his arm. “First Citizen.”

  Michael looked up to see what the boy could want. “What?” Rick was standing in the parlor room doorway, a hulking shadow.

  Jesus. I didn’t even hear him come up the steps.

  “Rick,” Michael said, rubbing the back of his neck, “would you mind pulling off some of those blankets for me? It’s bloody dark in here.”

  Rick gave no sign of hearing him. The man walked across the room, his boots making no noise as he passed over the dyitzu skin carpet. He sat down across from Michael.

  John’s head moved back and forth between the two.

  Rick ignored me.

  Rick and Galen didn’t like to be ordered around, but the request had been a friendly one.

  “I’m the First Citizen of Harpsborough,” Michael reminded him.

  Rick turned his head towards the boy for a second. John swallowed deeply.

  Michael looked back down at the chess board before refocusing on Rick. “I’m sorry the villagers attacked you. I assure you, the Fore has nothing but admiration for you. Their actions should not be mistaken for the true feelings of Harpsborough.”

  Rick’s gaze on him was unflinching.

  “I’m not used to being accused of anything, Rick,” Michael said. “I don’t take it well, even when it is my fault. In this case, Constance’s attack on you was not my fault.”

  Rick leaned forward. “You appear to be eating well.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Constance appears to be starving. Is that also not your fault?”

  John ran, his thigh brushing against the chess board. Pieces shifted and toppled over. A bishop fell, bouncing across the floor before settling on the dyitzu skin carpet.

  Michael bent down and picked up the piece.

  Rick was still staring at him.

  John’s sandals were clopping down the stairs.

  Michael wasn’t about to back down. “You’re too smart to pretend that this village’s welfare is so simple. You have no idea what the consequences would be if we fed the people the Fore’s food.”

  “I know what one of them would be.”

  “I live in the Fore, don’t pretend you know it better than I. Why the hell are you here, anyway?”

  “I’m here to help you,” Rick said.

  “Well it doesn’t God damn sound like it to me.”

  Rick leaned back in his seat. “Have there been more murders?”

  Michael bowed his head over the chess set. “Deaths. Not murders. We’re not positive that they are murders.”

  “But there have been more.”

  Michael stood up from his chair. “Yes, there have been more.” He began pacing. “Of course there’s been more. People are so hungry, they think any shadow is a dyitzu.”

  “And the people who tend to mistakenly identify villagers as dyitzu, they all haunt the downstream halls of the Kingsriver, don’t they?”

  Michael paced over towards the light orbs. “Yes. Yes they do. I know what you’re thinking. You think there’s some resource there that they’ve found. You think because they attacked you, that they’re willing to murder for food now. Well it’s not true. Not true at all. Hidalgo showed us all the caches out there—”

  “I found a corpse eater, Michael.”

  Michael had lifted a blanket off of one orb. He let it drop onto the floor before returning to his favorite chair and sitting down. “One of ours? Surely they haven’t gotten so hungry that they’d . . .”

  Rick shook his head. “Not yet. It wasn’t one of yours.”

  Michael let out a sigh. “Good.”

  “But he has friends, Michael. Hidalgo and I have reason to think that there is a group of them camped somewhere down the Kingsriver. They’ve been killing your people.”

  “Thank you for your warning,” Michael said. “They must be pretty far out, though, or Graham’s hunters would have found them. I’ll keep them posted, though.”

  Rick didn’t respond.

  Michael stood up again, motioning to the door. “I really appreciate it, but—”

  “Sit down.”

  Michael felt his blood rise. No one spoke to him like that, no one but—

  Galen. Rick has become Galen.

  Michael nodded and retook his seat.

  “They’re closer than you think, I guarantee it. I’ve got one of their men. He’s still too far gone to answer many questions, but I’m sure he’ll be able to lead you there after you nurse him
back to health.”

  “We’re stretched for food as it is,” Michael said. “You want me to feed a corpse eater out of the Fore’s stores? You must want me dead. There’s no way I’d get the Fore to approve such a thing.”

  “Then mandate it.”

  “I can’t keep doing that Rick. It makes the Citizens mad.”

  Rick put his hand into his pack. For a second, Michael thought he was going to pull out a gun. Instead, the hermit held out two chess pieces. They were the missing Kings for his set. Rick placed them on the board.

  “You owe us commission,” Rick said.

  “You picked a hell of a time to collect. I’ll have to defer that until—”

  “Use it to feed the corpse eater. When he’s well, he can lead you to the others.”

  Michael gritted his teeth. Finally he smiled. “Hell. Okay, Rick. I can see you’re just trying to get us to do the right thing.”

  Rick nodded.

  “Besides, I’m just dying to kick Staunten out of his room again. Bring the corpse eater in.”

  “You have a couple of hunters you can spare to bring him back?”

  “Can’t he walk?”

  “Walk? Yes. Just not in straight lines.”

  Michael laughed. “Very well. Two hunters it is.”

  Galen led Arturus through a short tunnel and then into another natural cave.

  “Stay back in the shadows,” he warned. “There are devils below.”

  As Arturus stepped down into the cavern, he caught sight of what his father had spoken of earlier. This chamber was perhaps the largest he had ever seen in his life, dwarfing even some of the immense expanses that surrounded the Kingsriver. Dozens of complete Harpsborough chambers could fit in there. Forests of stalagmites covered the floor of the purple chamber, as impressive a set of natural structures as Arturus had ever seen, but that wasn’t what took his breath away. In the center of that massive chamber was a city. Its walls were high and mostly still intact. At its base, the wall was made of huge grey granite blocks. From this distance it was difficult to judge their height, but Arturus would not have been surprised if each block was over twenty feet tall. Behind the wall, and eclipsing it in height, were a series of towers and wide buildings, forming together a skyline of dark shapes which stood in stark contrast to the purple flecks of mixed skystone and ruby which painted the chamber’s ceiling. Perhaps thousands of people, maybe even hundreds of thousands, could have lived in that city.