Knight of Gehenna (Hellsong Book 2)

by Shaun O. McCoy

  “Minotaur!” Kelly shouted.

  Oh no.

  Galen was already running for a corridor. “After me.”

  They ran through a natural chamber and then into one that had been worked over by Hell’s architect. It had low ceilings and was lit only by cubbyholes. Arturus was starting to get a good intuitive feeling for these kinds of rooms. He guessed correctly which exit Galen took them through. They were heading back to the mines.

  Avery collapsed without warning, his face a mask of pain. Johnny dragged him back up to his feet.

  His injury.

  They ran through two more chambers before Galen suddenly stopped, cocking his head to one side. Dakota ran right up next to him, shifting quickly back and forth from one foot to the other. Galen put a finger up in front of his lips and then placed his free hand on Dakota’s shoulder. Dakota took the hint and remained still.

  They were in a huge room, maybe three hundred yards long. To their right, at the end of the chamber, a river flowed. Arturus was looking behind them, half expecting the Minotaur to come barreling into the chamber, but Galen didn’t seem concerned about that.

  “What is he doing?” Galen whispered to himself.

  Arturus’ father closed his eyes and crouched.

  I don’t hear anything. Just that river.

  Galen’s eyes snapped open. “This way.” He darted off to the left.

  Arturus was about to follow when he heard Kelly’s gasp. She was looking back towards the river. The Minotaur was right there, coming out from a passageway on the far side of the water. Its skin was dark and ruddy. One of its horns had been broken off. A pair of hounds sprang up beside him, one on either side. A pack of dyitzu began to enter as well. The Minotaur spotted them, snorted, and charged right at the river. Arturus could hear its heavy hoofed footsteps clopping over the rush of the water. The thing leapt mightily, soaring across the river. It landed with a tremendous thud, skidding to a stop in a kneeling position.

  Its hounds landed on either side of it. The dyitzu were tossing fire and leaping into the river, swimming towards the other side.

  “Turi!” Johnny shouted.

  Arturus realized he was the last one in the room. He ran after the hunter. Galen was indeed leading them towards the mines, and Arturus was able to use that information to guess the next several passages they took. But then he got one wrong.

  Galen wasn’t leading them to the rustrock mine. And of course he wasn’t. How would Calimay get the rustrock if a Minotaur was hunting there?

  Galen led them into a different mine which had been dug into architect worked stone and then down a series of short tunnels. They entered a large chamber lit by a ruby vein. In it was a large overshot waterwheel, perhaps sixty feet tall. Galen had taught Arturus about such structures. They had been used back in the old world to clear water out of mines.

  That means this mine was once flooded.

  “Quickly,” Galen ordered, jamming a pole between the spokes of the waterwheel. “Climb the wheel. Get off at the ledge.”

  Arturus spotted the ledge about midway up the wheel. There appeared to be a passage leading away from it. Arturus could not shake the idea that his father had somehow known about the layout of the mine before he’d taken them in. Maybe he’d scouted the place when Calimay had allowed him to hunt the wilds. Maybe he’d known about it from before Arturus had even been born.

  The sound of a hound howling in a nearby corridor raised the hair on the back of Arturus’ neck. He leapt upon the waterwheel. It moved a little beneath his weight, but then it jammed on the pole Galen had used. It was an easy thing to climb since it had woodstone braces every few feet. Arturus was the fastest climber, so he made it to the ledge first. There was indeed a passage there. Johnny was coming up next. Arturus gave him a hand. Then came Kelly and Dakota. Avery struggled up after them, grimacing as his pack caught for a moment on one of the waterwheel’s struts. As Arturus helped him onto the ledge, he noticed that blood had stained the crotch and the right leg of Avery’s pants. Aaron joined them moments later.

  Tamara’s still back there, somewhere. Or dead.

  Galen was still down in the chamber. He’d kept watch on the entrance, his MP5 leveled, until Aaron was safely on the ledge. Galen removed the woodstone rod from the wheel and practically flew up the wall. He pushed them all back into the corridor behind the ledge. Hound howls and dyitzu hisses echoed in from the room they’d just left. Galen dropped to his belly and crawled back into the chamber.

  He returned to them after just a moment, coming back up to his feet. “Follow me.”

  “Are we safe?” Dakota asked.

  Galen shook his head. “I’m afraid not.”

  “That Minotaur was smart,” Galen explained as he led them up a mine shaft. “There’s a crystal labyrinth near where we were running, he thought we were headed there. He split away to make sure he could cut us off.”

  Arturus wondered how long the woodstone ladder rungs had been left in the rock. If the mine had been dug by the ancients, then it was entirely possible that some of them had gotten corpsedust on them and had rotted through. Every twenty or so rungs, he’d find one missing, which didn’t make him any more confident in their ability to hold his weight.

  “How we doing?” Avery called up.

  “Another hundred rungs or so,” Galen answered.

  I hope Avery’s doing okay.

  Arturus tried to look down, but all he could see below him was Dakota’s worried face.

  “There were humans with the Minotaur,” Dakota said. “Had upside down crosses. They got Tamara.”

  “Shame,” Johnny said. “Could have happened to a nicer girl.”

  Avery snickered.

  Avery can’t be that bad off if he’s laughing.

  “Wait?” Galen stopped climbing. “Killed or captured?”

  “Captured.”

  “Damn,” Galen said, continuing upwards.

  “What are we going to do about the hounds?” Aaron asked.

  Galen grunted, which made Arturus feel slightly jealous.

  “We’ve got to kill them,” Galen said. “If we enter the aqueduct while the Minotaur still has hounds, he’ll follow us in. We’ve got to take them out.”

  “Will this help?” Dakota asked, hooking one arm through a rung and holding up a small canister.

  Galen stopped again, and Arturus leaned to one side so that Galen could look past him.

  “Is that pepper spray?” Galen asked.

  Dakota smiled. “Yeah. Before I defected with Calimay, I was one Gilgamesh’s men.”

  Galen led them off of the ladder and onto a ledge. The light was a little better in the tunnel. Most of it was coming from the ceiling, causing their shadows to pool around their feet.

  “That wasn’t a hundred rungs,” Avery said as he crawled off of the ladder.

  “You complainin’?” Johnny joked, sitting next to Dakota.

  Dakota moved to stand behind Galen.

  Kelly settled down next to Arturus. Her warmth seeped in through his shirt. He felt comfortable next to her. Her face was flushed from the climb, and her cruel lips were curled into a smile. Arturus could not help but wonder how she would feel when compared to Calimay’s daughters. Then he looked at the bloodstain in the crotch of Avery’s pants.

  Bad idea.

  Galen pulled them in close. “Johnny, run down this passage about a kilometer. There’s going to be some openings on the left-hand side. If I’m right, you’re going to see the Minotaur through one of them. He’ll be about a hundred feet below you. Let me know if he has his two hounds with him. Don’t tarry there long, or they’ll smell you. Make sure you find Tamara as well. The rest of you, stay here. I’m going farther up, make sure I can still get us out of this place.”

  Johnny nodded and moved quickly down the corridor. Galen got back on the ladder. Dust fell from the rungs as he climbed, drifting down beside them.

  Arturus felt something touching his hand. He looked down. It wa
s Kelly’s hand. His heart beat faster as he held it.

  Really bad idea.

  “Hidalgo,” Martin called. “You in there?”

  The dwelling had a single artificial wall made out of stacked woodstone planks that had been placed across the entrance of a cave. It had a shuttered window that was protected with iron bars. A sinfruit vine, devoid of any fruit, crawled down next to the door where it was coiled, almost like a rope, as a sort of welcome mat. Along the top of the wall, where the woodstone met with the hellstone shaped by Hell’s architect, a series of dyitzu and hound skulls were hung. There were a few human skulls too, which Martin hoped were from corpses.

  “I be,” Hidalgo answered from within.

  The response struck Martin as almost philosophical. “Harpsborough needs you.”

  The door opened. The smell of rank dyitzu hit Martin full in the face. The man’s dreadlocks jingled. Martin realized that the smell was coming from the man’s pants.

  “Hidalgo, why in Hell are you dressed like that?”

  Hidalgo gave him a broad smile which Martin would have considered happy-go-lucky if it weren’t for the fact that Hidalgo had filed his teeth into points.

  “Hidalgo, he be getting very hungry,” Hidalgo said. “Before, when I hunting, I be wishing that the dyitzu not be noticing me. Now, me, I be so hungry I hope dyitzu attacks. You say Harpsborough, it be needing me?”

  Martin nodded. The smell of Hidalgo’s pants almost made him swoon. “Did you put corpsedust on your pants?”

  Hidalgo nodded his head, causing his beads to rattle. “Yes.” He gave his grin again. “But Martin, he not be saying why he be here.”

  “You know of the corpse eaters? Of their village?”

  “I be knowing.”

  “We need someone to scout for us, make sure we don’t get ambushed. Someone who’s familiar with the far downstream Kingsriver.”

  “I be familiar.”

  Martin nodded. “Then we really do need you, friend.”

  Hidalgo’s eyes narrowed, and his face became more serious. “Martin, you be calling me friend. Harpsborough, it be calling me friend too. But I, I’ve been noticing some . . . what you call them . . . ‘inconsistencies?’” Hidalgo flashed his filed teeth with a smile. “Once, Hidalgo, he be hunting along the Kingsriver. Once, Hidalgo, he be picking the sinfruit by Tulic’s fountain. Then Harpsborough hunters, they be coming, they be telling Hidalgo he don’t own things. Hidalgo, he a nice man, so he don’t kill them for it. But then the hunters, they be coming back and their saying Hidalgo their friend. Maybe Harpsborough, they don’t know what a friend is. When we came from the Carrion, the people, they knew why I kept these scars in my arm. Now, people, they be saying that it be sin. Hidalgo, he don’t hurt people. But people, they be hurting Hidalgo. Then they be calling him friend.”

  Martin gritted his teeth. “I, uh. I don’t know what to tell you. None of that was me, but if the Fore tells me to kick ya, then I’d probably do it. Maybe we could pay you?”

  Hidalgo’s eyes went wide. “Martin, he’d bribe me? What person you be thinking Hidalgo be?”

  Martin set down his pack and took out a jar of Mancini’s bloodwater. “Well, I was kind of hoping you were a drunk.”

  Hidalgo laughed long and hard. Then, wheezing a bit, he spoke, “Martin, you be my friend. Hidalgo, he not be leading Harpsborough people. He be leading Martin. If Martin, you have the hunters with you at the time, I be . . . uh . . . ‘A okay.’ When Martin makes a deal, he knows what friend is, yeah? Bon, Martin, I lead you and your men. First, we have the drink, yes?”

  Martin pinched his own nose with one hand and held up the other. “I’ll come in, I really will, and I want you to realize I’ve never said this to a man before, but you’ve got to take your pants off first.”

  Hidalgo opened his eyes in mock surprise before letting out a laugh loud enough to make sure that every devil within miles knew where he was.

  Johnny came running back down the corridor.

  “What’d ya see?” Aaron asked.

  “That Unitaur is down there, alright.”

  “Unitaur?” Avery asked.

  “Fucker’s got just one horn.”

  Arturus laughed, noticing Avery was chuckling along with him.

  “Anyway,” Johnny went on, “I only saw one of the hounds. Tamara isn’t there either, nor are the people. But he’s there with a fuck ton of dyitzu.”

  Dakota stood up. “We’ve got to find Tamara.”

  “Look,” Avery told him. “I realize you’ve got a hard on for the bitch, but sometimes you just have to let people go.”

  Dakota wheeled around on him. “You don’t understand. I don’t give a damn if we rescue her or not. I’d be just as happy if we shot her.”

  “Oh shit, he’s right,” Johnny said.

  Dakota looked at the small hunter in surprise.

  “What do you mean?” Aaron asked.

  Johnny slid down the wall into a sitting position, one hand on his forehead. “Tamara knows how to get into Calimay’s. It’s not like she was captured by dyitzu. Humans can torture her, can interrogate her. If she gives away Calimay’s location, we won’t have a place to regroup.”

  Dakota sneered at them. “And you won’t have a guide to get you down the Lethe either. You won’t ever get home.”

  “Oh God,” Johnny said, his eyes wide with horror. He pointed at Dakota. “No wonder you want to kill her so badly. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck with us.”

  It seemed to Arturus that Dakota was about to laugh, but the Carrion man managed to only give a slight smile.

  Galen was coming down the rungs.

  “Just one hound,” Aaron reported. “Tamara and the humans are gone, too. Dakota’s worried that she’ll give away the location of Calimay’s place.”

  Galen dropped on to the ledge. “Not good. But you did see the Minotaur?”

  Johnny nodded.

  Galen shook his head. “There’s no way we can get to Tamara.”

  “We have to,” Dakota said. “I won’t let my people die.”

  “I understand you, soldier, but we’re no match for a Minotaur even on its own, never mind one armed with a pack of dyitzu. It’s just not safe to go traipsing around the Carrion. That one’s angry, too. I think it was the one in the battle with La’Ferve. It’s looking for human blood, and it probably can’t tell we’re not on the same team as Maab.”

  Dakota stepped forward. “Galen, without our guide—”

  “I don’t care. Our best chance is still the aqueduct. We’ll make it to the City of Blood and Stone long before those soldiers do. That aqueduct is a straight shot. We’ll find the entrance to the city and set up a sniper. When they come, she dies. Agreed?”

  Dakota nodded.

  “Good. Now the fact that only one of the hounds is with him is bad, but I do have a way out of here. With the hounds split up, we won’t be able to kill them together without giving them a trail. We’re going to have to get fancy.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Aaron said. “What do you have in mind?”

  “We’ll walk straight past the aqueduct until we reach a river. Then we’ll double back. We’ll burst Dakota’s pepper spray near there. Normally a hound’s sense of smell is sensitive enough to notice a double back, but that pepper spray should keep them out of operation for a while. By then our trail might be cold enough that they won’t notice. Even if they do, that will hopefully have given us enough time to get a good lead.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Aaron said. “You good, Dakota?”

  “I’m good.”

  Martin moved quickly across Harpsborough. It was early, so early that Michael wasn’t even up on the balcony. Martin meant to get into the church before anyone could stop and talk to him about the war.

  As he was passing the Fore, its door blanket opened. Chelsea walked out. She seemed wide awake. Her hair was brushed back. Martin always liked that style better. There was a time when she wore it in a ponytail, like Alice did, bu
t it didn’t suit her. Martin thought of her red hair as a sort of mane. It may not have really looked like one, but Chelsea could be one fierce woman.

  “You’re up early, princess,” Martin told her.

  She gave him a fake smile. “I was waiting for you to get back into town.” She stopped and sniffed the air. “What’s that smell?”

  Martin rolled his eyes. “Hidalgo. He’s got these pants . . . well, you’ll see. He’ll be in town in a minute.”

  “For your meeting.” It was a statement, not a question.

  “Yes.”

  “I’m going with you,” Chelsea said, folding her arms beneath her breasts.

  Martin felt confused. “To the meeting?”

  “To the meeting and to the war.”

  Martin wasn’t surprised that the Fore had picked a Citizen to supervise things, and he was happy it was Chelsea they chose, but he was a bit surprised that they would send a woman to do such a thing. “The Fore sent you?”

  Chelsea smiled and shook her head. “They didn’t want to send anyone. But they didn’t say no when I decided to go. Of course, I told them, as I’ll tell you now, that I’m just here to observe . . . and maybe shoot a little . . . but not to give orders.”

  Martin took a deep breath.

  She’s right, I smell like Hidalgo’s pants.

  “I’m happy to have you,” Martin told her.

  Chelsea started walking towards the church, and Martin hurried to catch up.

  “Good, because you don’t have any choice in the matter,” Chelsea said. “Temp Lead Hunter or no, you’re still a villager, so technically I outrank you. Also, I can’t let you die.”

  Martin felt off balance. “Thank you.”

  “No, I’m serious. If you die out there, Graham will go back to being Lead Hunter. Only difference between this time and the last time he was Lead Hunter is that this time he’ll be in Mancini’s pocket.”

  Martin stopped dead in his tracks.

  Politics. Don’t worry. Chelsea’s a good girl. You win this war. She’ll take care of the politics.

  Galen had brought them to the river before walking them backward, retracing their steps. He stopped everyone at a black wall made of whetstone. It was marked with a symbol cut into its side—a triangle within a trapezoid cut by two horizontal lines. Below the symbol was a series of letters. Arturus moved closer so that he could read them.