by G A Chase
The elevator opened to the circular room at the top of the building. Everything was just as Colin had left it. He found the consistency reassuring. If he kicked something over, it would stay that way. If he left a book open to a specific page, nothing would change until he returned to resume his reading.
He walked past the conference table with Marie’s journals still open to the spells he’d used to release the energy from the totems. Four of the wooden heads looked out the windows at their brethren stuck outside in the storm. He thought of his earlier attempt to spin the room like a giant turbine and use the totems to direct the supernatural energy, gathered from Luther’s little playthings, out into the paranormal stream. In retrospect, that strategy seemed like child’s play. Colin needed to direct that power, not simply release it like a kid throwing a temper tantrum.
The door to the main control room behind the circular stage stood open. To combat Kendell, all he’d needed was to release the building’s magical lightning bolts. Now he would have to figure out what all the dials, levers, and gauges were meant to accomplish. The main gauge, which displayed the building’s current charge, had pointed to zero when he’d last left the room. Without electricity provided by the city or a storm to energize the structure’s grid, he’d drained the ample supply without thinking. The witch’s mistake was paying off. The gauge now read 25 percent. He once again had power at his command.
21
Myles kept the cane he’d received from Papa Ghede locked away in a gun safe. He hated guns and everything associated with them. The gray-painted steel safe in the back of his closet didn’t provide him any comfort, but at least no one would be stealing the magic stick.
Papa Ghede had said Myles needed to learn how to use the cane that had belonged to Baron Samedi. Though the staff had always been meant for him, even before he was born, Myles couldn’t hold it without feeling the energy of Baron Malveaux. Too many bad memories accompanied removal of the cane from the locker.
“Why are you staring at that thing?” Kendell always seemed to know when he was facing a crisis.
He closed the closet door, wishing it were as easy to ignore his thoughts. “Did you learn anything from Mary?”
She shot him the familiar look that said, You’re not getting out of this that easily. “We had a pleasant lunch. Now that her clan owns the land along the batture, they aren’t as paranoid of strangers as they used to be. She let me take her out to that steakhouse next to the ferry, even though she was uncomfortable being around people her family begs from. I just wanted to do something nice as a thank-you for all she’s done for us. I guess I’ve still got a lot to learn about people.”
Though he enjoyed the recap of her day, that hadn’t been the point of her trip across the river. “How did she take the news that there’s an alternate-reality version of herself that owns that whole piece of land?”
“About as you’d expect. Everyone believes there’s an alternate-reality version of themselves that’s a king or a celebrity or whatever. I don’t think she even stopped eating her gumbo at the news. Honestly, she seemed more interested in explaining to me why the dish was so bland.”
As he’d feared, Kendell hadn’t found some magical alternative to the cane locked in his closet. “So no secret insight into what Colin’s up to?”
“Nope. How did things go at the Scratchy Dog?”
From inside the closed closet, behind the coats in the locked gun cabinet, the cane called to him. “A strikeout would have been preferable. Colin knew we were peeking into his world. Those bats of his seemed to have experienced a population explosion. I joined souls with the band to see what we’re up against.” He gave her a moment to digest the information. From the expressions of shocked anger and then acceptance, he knew she was conducting his argument for him far better than he’d have done.
“What did you learn?”
“Sanguine isn’t just using the band’s psychic energy. We’re holding her to life, and that line is slipping.”
Kendell pointed at the closed closet. “Something tells me that’s why you were considering opening that gun locker.”
He opened the door, feeling like he was revealing a hidden porn collection. “We can’t talk to Sanguine as she’s cut off in hell, but we also can’t sit by and let her drain the band until they too become comatose. For one thing, we don’t have that much couch space. And if we can’t hold onto Sanguine, we’ll lose her to Colin’s domain.”
Kendell crossed her arms. “That’s why you wanted to know about Mary before telling me about the cane. You were hoping we could talk to her over one of the gates. As there’s a version of Mary who isn’t part of our dimension, you were grasping at the last straw.”
“Something like that. Only we don’t need to just talk to Sanguine.”
He barely got his sentence out before she objected. “We are not taking the girls back into hell.”
“Agreed. In their condition, they might not even make the trip. But that’s all academic because we can’t enter the gates, only guard them.”
She eased up on her defiant stance. “So what’s your idea?”
“We’re going to have to sneak in the back door. Just you and me—no other people, no dogs, no magic. Colin has his realm staked out. He’ll notice any big changes like us driving Minerva’s VW bus into hell like last time. However, he is stuck in a single moment. That leaves us a lot of time to enter and figure out how to sync up with Sanguine.”
“But Baron Samedi closed the seventh gate of Guinee.”
Myles opened the gun cabinet. “His seventh gate was never between hell and Guinee. When he got sucked into Agnes Delarosa’s hurricane with Colin, Baron Samedi’s spirit punched a hole between the two realms. Even though having him return to Guinee closed the hole, that passage still exists. It’s like one of those old brick walls you see in the Quarter where at one time a window opening was bricked in. You can still see the outline of what was there. With this cane, I should be able to knock out just enough of those metaphorical bricks to let us pass.”
He could see her objections coming. He’d argued most of them himself.
“But we’d have to pass through Guinee, and Baron Samedi can’t help us. He’s back at his guard station. Papa Ghede made it sound like there would be a full-on revolt from Baron Kriminel if that balance of power isn’t maintained.”
Myles removed the cane. “That’s why it’s up to us.”
“You’re not just talking about us making another spiritual journey, are you? You want us to bodily walk into Guinee. The living aren’t supposed to wander the streets of the dead.”
The power of the cane radiated in Myles’s hand. “My plan gets worse. Remember how Baron Samedi couldn’t leave the bank office, and how his time there took a toll on him? If I’m right, I’ll have to stand at the opening so you can pass. If I got stuck on the other side, I would be in the same predicament Baron Samedi was in. That means you’ll be alone to find Sanguine. So long as Colin remains in her version of the past, we should be okay.”
“Right. I’ll just have to find her in all of New Orleans and the swamp she calls home. And on foot no less.”
“My hope is that she’ll find you. She has been sucking up a lot of energy. Her skills, even before this adventure, were with understanding animals. My guess is she’s using the animals to keep a watchful eye on everything that’s happening in hell. She did a pretty good job at talking those snakes off of your legs.”
Kendell shivered. “Don’t remind me. What if she doesn’t want to leave? She can be pretty obstinate when she wants to be.”
He refrained from making the comparison with Kendell. “She wouldn’t be staying there if she didn’t have a plan.”
“We had a plan. Remember? Building those seven gates wasn’t just a day at the beach, making sandcastles.”
“Tell it to Sanguine.”
* * *
Sneaking through a war zone involving the loas of the dead in order to gain access to hell s
ounded like a really bad idea to Kendell, but she didn’t have a better one. They hadn’t yet discussed Myles’s progress with the cane. She knew he stayed up nights playing with the damn thing in secret. Not that she blamed him. When a lord of the afterlife told someone to learn how to use their magic for the battle ahead, that person didn’t have much choice but to listen.
“So how do we get to Guinee, and once there, what do you expect we’ll find?”
His hand on top of the staff glowed green from the stone nestled under the silver skull handle of the walking stick. “We’re using a walking cane, so we get to Guinee by walking. I’m just hoping all hell isn’t breaking loose—literally or figuratively—when we arrive.”
She put her hand around his arm as if he were escorting her into a fashionable party. “Let’s get on with it.”
Stepping from one reality to the other was as easy as walking from the hallway to the living room—only this living room resembled Basin Street of the Storyville era. Gaslights lit the cobblestone street and the entrance of every building. Music from tinny pianos mixed with women’s laughter. Dust kicked up from the passing horse carts hung in the humid air.
“I can’t quite place the smell,” Myles said. “It’s kind of a combination of horse manure, sulfur, and really bad perfume.”
“You’re not helping. At least we’re not in the middle of a post-apocalypse war. This sure isn’t what I expected.”
He pointed to a sign over the nearest building. Gate Number One. In the dim light, it would have been unreadable had it not been written in big red letters. “No one ever accused the loas of subtlety.”
“Should we enter?” Kendell asked.
With her hand still around his arm, he guided her to the wooden walkway that connected the buildings. “We’re not trying to open the gates to the deep waters, so we should be safe trying to find Baron Samedi without the ritual of entering every gate in order.”
As they passed the building, Kendell looked in the rippled-glass window. To her astonishment, people were drinking and dancing like some 1800s version of Bourbon Street. “I don’t get it. I thought the dead were just supposed to pass through Guinee. What are all these people doing here?”
“Having fun apparently. Baron Malveaux kept his women prisoners in Guinee. Maybe this isn’t just a bus station like we thought.”
She could see the appeal of not wanting to let go of the life she’d spent so long building. If she’d died as these people had, she couldn’t imagine carrying on without those she loved. “What about the battle between the loas of the dead?”
Myles nodded toward the door below the Gate Number Two sign. “Let’s poke our noses in. Guede Nibo was the nicest of all the loas when I was possessed by Baron Malveaux. Plus, he was taken in by Baron Samedi when he first got here, so hopefully he’ll be willing to fill us in on what’s going on.”
The rough-hewn wooden bar, unfinished floor, and general grungy appearance of the place more properly fit a Hollywood Western than a realm of the dead.
“What the hell?” Kendell pointed at the table in the back of the establishment, where Baron Samedi was playing cards with another loa of the dead.
“You two aren’t supposed to be here.”
Kendell saw Guede Nibo serving drinks behind the bar.
Myles escorted her to a barstool in front of the loa. “We need to talk to Baron Samedi. There’s trouble in hell.”
Nibo leaned over the bar conspiratorially. “When is there not trouble in hell? My baron is playing for this establishment at the moment. I wouldn’t want to disturb him. The competition is down to the final two.”
“I don’t understand,” Kendell said.
“What’s to understand? You don’t have betting in the world you come from? Things sure have changed.”
“Of course we have gambling,” she said. “Is this what all the commotion was about regarding a war between the loas for control of Guinee? A simple game of cards?”
“Nothing simple about it. How would you propose we settle our conflicts? A physical altercation proves nothing other than who’s stronger, and driving one of us from Guinee would leave a gate unattended. Trust me, it’s enough work just looking after this place. Having to run two gates would run any loa ragged.”
Slowly, she began to see the brilliance of their means of settling conflict. “But if one of them loses yet doesn’t want to run the other club, what are the stakes?”
“Control takes many forms, but I doubt you’ve crossed over to the land of the dead to learn about our gambling habits. Since I can tell you aren’t among the dead, others will notice too. You’d best conduct your business as fast as you can.”
Myles lifted his cane so Guede Nibo could see it. “We’re just passing through, but our escape lies within Baron Samedi’s seventh gate.”
“I see. Then you’d better hope he wins this game against Baron Kriminel. Keep to the shadows. If Kriminel knows you’re here, you might have a rough time getting out. Leave before Baron Samedi gets up from the table.”
Kendell hadn’t been a fan of cards since the night a former boyfriend had conned her into a game of strip poker. She barely knew the rules and was lost when it came to identifying the winning hand. From the expressions and gestures of the patrons standing behind the two contestants, however, it wasn’t hard to figure out who was winning.
Baron Samedi laid down his hand with a look of triumph.
Kriminel threw his cards on the table with such force that they skidded off to the floor. “You win this round, but we’re just getting started.”
“As the winner,” Baron Samedi said, “I call the next round—my club in an hour. I have something to attend to.”
Myles hustled Kendell out of the club before they heard the wooden chair legs scrape along the unfinished floor. They hurried into the dark alley beside the building.
A prostitute who’d been lingering by the door followed them out as if they were potential clients. She checked the street before joining them in the alley. “Take me with you. I’m not supposed to be dead. This is all a horrible mistake. They’re holding me against my will.”
Though Kendell’s natural urge was to help the frightened woman, she knew the truth of what she was about to say. “You don’t want to end up where we’re headed. There are places far worse than purgatory.”
The shadow of a man darkened the narrow passage, causing the woman to flee down the alley away from the street.
“As Nibo said, you don’t belong here.”
Kendell let out a deep breath, realizing it was Baron Samedi. “Sanguine’s soul got left behind in hell. We can’t reach her any other way.”
“Now that you’re here, I suppose it would be pointless arguing with you.”
Myles stood the cane in front of him. “You were able to get from hell back to Guinee with this staff. My plan depends on that passage working both ways.”
“Come with me. We’ll keep to the alleyways and sneak in the kitchen to the seventh gate. Don’t let anyone see you.”
Kendell didn’t want to speculate on what dangers were involved as a living human caught in the afterlife. From the way Baron Samedi stuck to the shadows and guided them through the maze of back passages, she guessed the danger wasn’t only to her and Myles.
Finally, the dark loa escorted them between two buildings with the main street they’d started on at the end of the passage. He opened a service door and rushed them inside. “I realize that was the long way down the street, but the cloak and dagger was necessary. If these souls realized there was a way from Guinee back to life, we could have an uprising.”
Kendell didn’t have the courage to tell him about the prostitute. Bracing herself for another journey to hell seemed like enough stress for one day.
Instead of entering the saloon, Baron Samedi directed them up a narrow stairway at the back of the building. “Patrons use the main staircase to the second floor. This one’s reserved for house cleaning, so it doesn’t get much use at thi
s time of day. You should be okay so long as no one sees Myles standing guard.”
Kendell thought about being trapped alone in hell, and her legs felt as though all the muscles had turned to pudding. She wondered if she’d be able to stand upright, let alone wander the realm searching for her friend. “I doubt Sanguine is going to be waiting at the door. She might not be that easy to find. What happens if the trip takes longer than just a few minutes?”
“Since time isn’t passing in the witch’s hell, it won’t pass here either. Don’t let time move, and you’ll be fine.” He paused at the top of the stairs. “The door will only open to the instant you left hell. If your intent is to move through time in hell to pursue Colin Malveaux, the gate will do you no good.”
Myles gripped the cane below the silver skull. “Kendell just needs to convince Sanguine to return to her body.”
Baron Samedi motioned to a door at the end of the hallway. “From what I saw of her, you’ll have your work cut out convincing her of anything.” He opened the door to a dusty broom closet that stank of cleaning solvents. “This is what anyone in Guinee would see. When I close the door, rap on it with the cane and open it again. You’ll see the bank office. Myles will have to stand guard on this side of the door until you return. We can’t risk any of our charges wandering into the wrong room.”
Kendell couldn’t contain her curiosity. “I assume this is a brothel, but where do your souls go to find the deep waters?”
He waved his hand at the doors that lined the hallway. “These rooms, of course. The sooner you go, the less danger of being caught.”
Myles quietly struck the door. “Don’t let Sanguine talk you into some foolhardy adventure. Drag her by the hair if you have to, but get her back to this gate. We know Colin is back in time relative to when we left. Since I don’t remember opening this door to you, I have to believe we’d be in deep voodoo if you went back in time.”
