by Diem, J. C.
“It will be painful and we will most likely be injured if we drop over the side,” Sam whispered, “but at least we will heal.”
I grimaced to show him what I thought of that, but we didn’t have a choice. “Can you see the tunnel that Morax was talking about?” It was too gloomy and crowded with souls for me to make out the far edges of the pit.
He squinted as he peered into the pit and shook his head. “I cannot see any openings in the wall.”
His eyesight was better than mine, but I wasn’t ready to give up yet. I mentally crossed my fingers that the secret entrance would be an illusion that I would be able to see through once we were closer. “We’d better get down there before we’re seen,” I said and sat down on the edge of the pit. Sam took my hand and joined me. We shared a look of trepidation then pushed ourselves off.
Sliding down the slick rock, I braced myself for impact as the ground rushed up at us. I hadn’t realized just how densely packed the souls were. I landed squarely on one and flattened him. Sam landed on two and they let out surprised shrieks. Instead of breaking my legs as I’d expected to, I merely suffered some bruising. The poor creatures that had saved us from compound fractures wailed. They probably thought that this was a new form of torment.
A ripple effect spread outwards, alerting their torturers that something had happened. They turned in our direction, but Sam had already yanked me backwards. We put our backs to the wall and merged into it almost invisibly.
Two of the lesser demons pushed and shoved their way towards us. They used their weapons freely on the souls, hacking and slicing at random until they reached the epicenter of the disturbance. They didn’t know what had caused the fuss, but they swung their blades around in apparent glee.
Sam tugged on my hand to get me into motion and we slowly crept away. The souls were too wrapped up in their never-ending torment to even notice us brushing past them as we made our way around the wall of the pit. With Sam leading the way, I didn’t notice the secret passage until we were right on top of it. Seeing a doorway suddenly appear, I pulled him to a stop. The illusion that the wall was solid was ruined by a faint shimmer that he didn’t even notice.
Much taller and wider than normal, the door was large enough for a Demon Prince to be able to use as an emergency escape. I put my hand on the knob, but it wouldn’t turn. It was locked, but I knew a rune that would open it. Turning Sam around so his back was to me, I kept one hand on his arm as I opened the backpack and rummaged around inside. The container of blood was still tightly secured. I took it and one of the brushes out and went to work.
Sam kept his hand on my shoulder and his other hand on the wall to maintain our illusion. When I’d finished painting the symbol on the door, I used my teeth to tear a small wound in my palm. Surrounded by souls and their torturers, I couldn’t risk pulling my dagger to cut myself. The glow would be seen across the entire pit. Speaking of the glow, the rune would give us away the moment that I activated it. We’d have to move fast so we wouldn’t be caught.
Checking that none of the guards or torturers were looking in our direction, I braced myself for action. “Ready?” I whispered to Sam.
“Ready,” he replied.
I pressed my palm on the symbol and scarlet light bloomed. This time, the knob turned easily and I shoved the door open. The closest souls blanched when the rune flared to life. They wailed loudly, drawing the attention of their punishers. Pushing Sam ahead of me, I pulled my dagger. As I’d expected, it instantly began to glow. I scraped it over the rune before darting inside. The crimson light from the rune was already dying before I slammed the door shut.
I’d caught a glimpse of the lesser demons and the guards before the door had closed. None of them had been making their way over to us through the throng. I was pretty sure we’d managed to get inside without being seen by them. It was doubtful that the souls of the former humans would be able to tattle on us. The only sounds they were capable of making were moans and screams. Only a hellscribe would be able to gain entry once I’d broken the rune. It would be hidden behind the illusion that was masking the door from view.
It was completely dark inside the long, wide tunnel, but the legion gave me a form of night vision. The rocky ceiling was high enough for the prince to be able to walk along without scraping his horns on it. Cloven hoof prints in the dirt floor indicated that the ruler of the seventh realm had used the tunnel at some stage in the past.
I could see about a hundred yards along the tunnel. It curved upwards and to the left, presumably heading towards the palace. We started walking and the tunnel began to turn upwards at a steeper angle. It was a gradual climb and we passed smaller side tunnels every now and then. They were barely higher than my knees and looked as if they’d been dug out by animals. The air was musty and unpleasant.
Sam pointed out a different set of footprints that had strange drag marks between them. We shared a glance. They’d been made by something with pads and claws rather than hooves or shoes. “Rats?” I said out loud and he nodded. “Great,” I muttered beneath my breath. Even though they’d been able to bite and claw us, the hellrats that we’d faced in the shadowlands had only been an illusion. The ones hiding in these tunnels would be very real.
Hearing a squeaking noise echo through the passageway, I froze. It sounded almost questioning. An answering squeak came from somewhere else. We heard the patter of multiple feet and the slither of tails heading towards us.
Sam pulled me back against the wall and masked us from sight. A pack of twenty or so rats appeared from a side tunnel. A second pack about the same size joined them from the opposite side. Meeting in the main passageway, they seemed to confer then turned towards us. Their noses were twitching in overdrive. Sam might be able to mask our appearance, but he couldn’t do anything to hide our scent.
We remained still as the gigantic rodents crept towards us. Knee high, their black fur was matted. I couldn’t believe they could smell us over their own stench. Unlike the ravens and nags, these things weren’t undead. They’d been created in hell rather than being brought here and they were very much alive.
Their noses led them straight to us, but they couldn’t distinguish us from the rock wall. When it was only inches away from me, one of them stretched its head out and bumped into my shin. It gave a startled squeak and reacted the same way that any wild animal would. It bit me.
Taking out a chunk of flesh along with my jeans, the smell of my blood incited hunger in the milling pack. They surged forward and carried Sam away from me. The moment our hands lost contact, I became visible. Wild squeals of rage and triumph rang out. I pulled my dagger again and it blazed with light. I’d need a better weapon to fight this many foes. At that thought, it transformed into the double bladed axe that Morax loved so much.
Fighting rats was easy compared to some of the things that I’d encountered in hell. The blade cut through them easily, leaving chopped up body parts behind as I carved my way through the pack. Unlike the gnome-like creatures that I’d fought in the eighth realm, the rodents weren’t intelligent enough to understand that they were doomed. They kept coming no matter how many of them fell.
Apart from receiving a few scratches and bites, I was relatively unharmed when the last rodent went down. Sam’s steak knife was bloody and he was panting from the effort of defending himself. He had claw and teeth marks on his arms and legs, but he’d heal soon enough. “I hate rats,” he said with heartfelt loathing.
“These ones aren’t exactly cute and cuddly.” Not that the rats on Earth were particularly pleasant to be around either.
Now that the battle was over, my weapon returned to its usual form of a dagger and the glow died. I didn’t need to clean it when I was in the supernatural world. The blood and guts magically disappeared after every battle. Sam didn’t have the same luck and used his shirt to wipe his knife clean.
I wished that was the only battle we’d have to face, but I knew there would be others. Even now, I could hear t
he shuffling of feet and quiet squeaking as more rodents closed in on us.
₪₪₪
Chapter Thirty
By the time we worked our way to the top of the long, curving tunnel, we’d encountered three more large packs of rats. We left their broken, bloodied bodies where they lay. There were too many corpses to try to hide them all. Besides, no one had used the tunnel in years. It was doubtful that anyone would stumble across the bodies and realize that we’d infiltrated the palace.
Finally reaching a large door at the end of the tunnel, we crept up to it and pressed our ears against the cold black wood. I could hear muffled voices on the other side, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. It sounded like two demons and their tone seemed almost panicked.
“This is bad,” Sam said in a low voice when the voices finally stopped. His hearing was good enough to have been able to make out their words.
“Who were they and what were they saying?”
“They were two minions and they were gossiping about their Prince. He has ordered his lords to dismember a demon every minute until we are found and brought before him.”
“So? Won’t they just be sent back to the first realm and heal?”
“Not if the pieces are kept apart. They need to be in contact to become whole again. Knowing the fate that they will face will make them very eager to locate us.”
“I don’t get why they don’t just rise up and overthrow him.”
“He is their ruler. They must obey his every command.”
“Why?”
“He has dominion over them, due to the level of power that he has gained through his conquests. You exhibited the same control when you ordered two lesser demons to fight you.”
“That wasn’t me,” I argued. “It was Morax and the other Demon Lords.”
“If you say so,” he said in a doubtful tone.
It disturbed me that he thought I had that kind of influence over hell spawn. Having evil essence inside me didn’t make me one of them. At least, I hoped it didn’t. My face appearing on the carriage contradicted that hope, but I pushed the thought away. I couldn’t deal with the implications of what might be happening to me right now.
This door was locked as well, which wasn’t a surprise. I painted the rune on it, trying not to gag at the smell of the demon blood. My dagger sliced into my palm and I activated the symbol. I didn’t hear shouts coming from the other side, so hopefully no one had been close enough to feel the flare of unholy power that I’d just used. The lords were more attuned to the black magic than the lesser demons were.
I couldn’t hear any movement through the door and pulled it open a crack. A long, wide hallway stretched out ahead with another one angling to the right. A lone guard stood in front of a door to the right, but he was looking in the opposite direction. I stepped out and Sam followed me. As soon as I pulled the door shut, the illusion that it was just a blank wall returned.
It was oppressive being in the hallway with slick black rock on every surface. Flaming torches had been added every fifty yards or so. They did little to illuminate the halls, but they added to the creepy atmosphere.
Five lesser demons dressed in black sackcloth rounded the corner far to the right. Sam had already made us blend into the wall. We shuffled closer to see they were carrying severed body parts. Reaching the door where the guard was on duty, they waited impatiently for him to open it. They tossed the heads and limbs inside then he closed the door again. They couldn’t quite hide their disturbed expressions at the shuffling, shimmying sounds that were coming from within the room.
“Eww,” I whispered. “They must be keeping the body parts in different rooms so they don’t become reattached.”
“That is sick, even for a Demon Prince,” Sam replied just as quietly.
“We need to find his chambers. If we’re lucky, he’s keeping the object there.” Something told me we wouldn’t be that fortunate, but we had to at least search for it.
Turning away from the room where the dismembered demon pieces were being kept, we followed the hallway to the corner. Glassless windows lined the wall on our left. I glanced outside to see the gloomy city below. Lesser demons and soldiers swarmed through the streets, still desperately searching for us. Gargoyles flew overhead, eyes scanning the ground for anything suspicious. They didn’t realize that we’d broken into the palace yet. I wanted us to remain unnoticed for as long as possible.
We passed several doors until we reached the next corner. A second guard stood outside a room where we could hear the disturbing sounds of body parts moving around.
An archway with a set of stairs leading upwards was only a few yards away from the guard. We crept towards it and froze when we heard footsteps clomping down. A pair of Demon Lords emerged a few moments later. They passed by us so closely that I had to shuffled my feet back so my toes didn’t get squished.
“This constant dismemberment has to stop,” one of the lords said. She looked back over her shoulder to make sure the guard couldn’t hear her.
“I would like to see you tell our Prince that,” her companion replied slyly. “He would strip you of your power and banish you back to the first realm for your impertinence. I am sure there are many ambitious captains who would leap at the chance to take your place.”
I’d heard that a demon who was defeated in battle, or by a hellgate during the trials, was sent back to the first realm, but it was news to me that they were also stripped of their power. That meant they’d have to conquer the gates all over again to be able to escape to Earth. I filed that knowledge away as we scurried up the stairs.
The second level of the palace was slightly smaller than the first. It was a large, square building with a hallway that stretched along the entire outer edges. We didn’t venture further into the palace through any of the doorways. Our goal was to get to the prince’s chambers, not to explore the place. I was hoping he’d hidden the object somewhere inside his bedroom. If he wasn’t there, we’d search the room for it. If he was there, I’d have to deal with him and somehow get him to tell me where it was.
Finding the stairs to the third level, we didn’t encounter any servants or guards this time. Smaller than the lower two floors, the third floor had only a few doors on the inner walls. None of them were guarded, but we could hear voices coming from deeper inside the palace.
We walked through the halls until we found the wide staircase that led to the central tower and to the prince’s private retreat. The beacon was at the tip of the tower high above us. I knew from past experience that the stairs didn’t reach all the way to the top of the spire. The beacon could only be reached by someone who had wings.
At the top of the long, winding staircase, we came to a short hallway where a gigantic black door awaited. Like the hallways downstairs, this one was lined with windows on each side. Hearing a piercing shriek, I peered outside to see a pair of gargoyles fighting in midair. They bit and clawed at each other while freefalling. They split apart and their wings flared out to halt their fall just before they would have splattered against the wall of the palace. Glaring in hatred, they gave up on their battle and flew in opposite directions.
Unconcerned by their display of rivalry, Sam kept close to my side as we hurried to the end of the hallway. We pressed our ears against the door and couldn’t hear movement on the other side. There wasn’t a large gap beneath the door that I could peer through this time. Hoping for the best, I took a deep breath, turned the knob and pushed the door open.
I froze when I saw a dozen Demon Lords standing in a semi-circle in front of me. Then a gigantic hand reached out and grabbed me by the throat and lifted me off the ground. The prince of the realm stepped into view. His hideous face was covered in the same symbols that marked his body. Twin horns flowed upwards and swept backwards over his head. The tips curved together at the end, but didn’t quite meet.
“So, this is the fabled Hellscourge,” he said with a sneer. His voice was deep, guttural and difficult t
o understand. He examined me like I was an interesting bug that was pinned to a board. “How disappointing. You are not nearly as impressive as I’d expected.” His scarlet eyes flicked to Sam. My friend was cowering in fear, yet held his steak knife ready to try to rescue me. “Pull the imp’s arms and legs off,” the prince said. “Throw him in with the rest of the body parts.”
Struggling to breathe, I managed to utter a word as I pulled my dagger. “Run!” I heard Sam’s feet move into action as he bolted back down the hallway. Half of the Demon Lords took off after him.
“What do you plan to do with that pitiful thing?” the prince asked in amused derision at the weapon that was clutched in my hand. “Are you going to trim my talons for me?”
My head was swimming from a lack of air and I was on the verge of passing out. Morax shoved his way forward, taking over my body. I took a mental step backwards as he transformed the dagger into his favorite double bladed axe. My foe’s amusement fled and he dropped me in surprise.
“I was thinking more along the lines of chopping your head off with it,” Morax said through me. Then his axe spun into action.
₪₪₪
Chapter Thirty-One
My axe swung towards the prince’s face, but one of the lords intercepted it with his own weapon. Metal met metal with a loud clang and bright red sparks flew. The prince drew back to watch as his lieutenants dealt with me. Another one stepped up and the other four kept watch as I tried not to get hacked or stabbed to death.
Morax hadn’t lied when he’d told me he was the most skilled lord in hell. He was only one step below his own prince and he easily bested these two. Exchanging glances, the other four lords all called on their various weapons and rushed me at once.
Using my body as a puppet, Morax danced, ducked and wove his way through them. I was much smaller than they were, but he didn’t let my size difference get in the way. My axe clove into my enemies, leaving terrible wounds that stole their lives. My touch meant death and no demon was powerful enough to survive it.
