Hell Raiser (Hellscourge Book 7)

by Diem, J. C.

  My hopes of skirting around the town faded when I saw how close the streams were to it. Sam would be cooked before we could make it all the way around the perimeter to the other side. We’d have to go through it instead.

  The wall that surrounded the town was only six feet high. It was made of the same black volcanic rock as the buildings that were crowded together. They were only a few feet away from the wall. Helping Sam over first, I climbed over next and found I could barely fit into the tight space next to the building.

  “Follow me,” Sam said quietly. He trailed his hand against the wall of the building and I put my hand on his shoulder. He was ready to camouflage us, but I hoped it wouldn’t be necessary. He would have to conserve his strength for when it would really be needed.

  The gap between the wall and the buildings gradually became smaller until I had to turn sideways. We froze whenever we came to a gap between the structures. Sam peeked to make sure no one was in sight before continuing on.

  Squat, square and ugly, the houses had been built for the soldiers and servants. Only a couple of buildings were larger and slightly more ornate. They would belong to a captain and possibly a Demon Lord. The lords were in charge of the larger towns. The captain would be training a regiment of a thousand soldiers at a barracks nearby. The tortured souls were making too much noise for me to hear the soldiers as they trained for their invasion of Earth.

  “We cannot go any further this way,” Sam said when we came to the last building.

  Looking over his head, I saw open space where the souls had been gathered together. Twisted, black and naked, they were on their knees. They were chained together to stop them from attempting to run away. Studying the pitiful former humans, I doubted they had the ability to form a thought let alone run away. None of them were capable of speech. All they could do was utter moans of despair and shrieks of agony.

  Lesser demons walked among the throng. Their weapons were ancient and were pitted with rust. They randomly stabbed, sliced or clubbed their prisoners, laughing gleefully as they inflicted pain on them.

  Leaning out to peer around the corner of the building, I saw a road leading out of town. It wasn’t going to be easy to sneak over to it. Servants dressed in black sackcloth scurried here and there on their menial errands. We’d be spotted immediately if we stepped out of cover. If Sam had still had his full strength, we could have made our way along the wall as he blended us in with the stone. He’d never be able to keep up the ruse for that distance now and it was no longer an option.

  He sent me a bleak look as he realized the same thing. “What are we going to do?” he said in a bare whisper.

  “We’ll have to make a run for it,” I replied. I didn’t give him a chance to tell me it was a terrible idea. I picked him up, threw him over my shoulder and took off at a sprint. I was halfway to the gate when someone shouted in alarm. The thud of feet told me we were being pursued. I was bigger and stronger than them and I wasn’t concerned that they’d be able to catch up. Then two figures appeared from out of nowhere in the exit and I skidded to a stop.

  Seven feet tall and made of shadow, the Wraith Warriors didn’t intimidate me anymore. I was a full foot taller than they were and I knew they couldn’t hurt me. Sam was a different story and I didn’t want him to be injured. The wall was only a few yards away now. Calling on my nightmares, they materialized with the carriage as I heaved Sam over the wall. I heard him land with a thump. He scrambled to his feet and climbed into the vehicle. Pulling the curtain aside, he peered out at me anxiously.

  Demons had converged to block my retreat, but I wasn’t going to run from the prince’s private assassins. I didn’t even bother to pull my dagger. Instead, I walked straight towards them. Shadowy swords appeared in their hands and they split apart to come at me from two different directions. Moving in tandem, they lunged at me. Their black blades halted only inches away from skewering my sides just as I’d known they would. Sensing that I’d already been marked, they exchanged a look then disappeared.

  “That is impossible,” someone in the throng muttered. I turned to see they were all clutching their crimson weapons. “Wraith Warriors never stop once they have been dispatched to mark their targets.”

  “Nothing is impossible for me,” I said and they flinched at my gravelly voice. I pulled the curtain away to reveal my demonic face. “I am Hellscourge and they know better than to incur my wrath.” That was a lie, but they fell for it anyway. Backing away, they turned and ran. Word would spread that I’d faced down two of the most dangerous creatures in the nine realms. One scratch from a Wraith Warrior’s sword was enough to inflict damage even on their kind. It wouldn’t kill them, but the toxin would send them straight back to the first realm where they would be stripped of their rank.

  My smirk lasted until I saw the raven perched on a rooftop. It was watching me through its single milky eye. My mood instantly souring, I jogged through the exit and over to the carriage. Sam shifted aside to let me in. Pulling the curtain off my head, I instructed the nightmares to continue our trek. I wanted to put some distance between us and the town before I covered the door again.

  Sam sat with his arms crossed, refusing to look at me. He was sulking and I didn’t know why. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “I cannot believe that you tossed me over the wall like I am a piece of garbage!”

  “I was protecting you.”

  “By treating me like a child!” His bottom lip almost pooched out in a pout.

  “What do you think will happen if one of the Wraith Warriors stabs you?” I asked. He set his jaw stubbornly and looked away. “You’re almost completely human now and you can’t heal like you used to be able to. If they figure out how important you are to me, they might target you. Where will that leave me?”

  I saw tears shimmering in his eyes and he had to blink furiously to keep them from falling. Mastering himself, he looked at me. “I do not want to fail you,” he said in a low voice.

  “You could never fail me, Sam. You wouldn’t even know how to.”

  His smile was so sweet that it nearly broke my heart. He was desperate to continue to help me. He just didn’t realize that he helped me in so many ways other than just using his unique talents.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Forty

  Sam slept on and off during our lengthy journey. There was no night or day in hell, just a perpetual twilight. It wasn’t easy to keep track of the passing of time. Feeling an urgency rising inside me, I instructed my nightmares to go straight through towns rather than attempting to detour around them. Filled with endless energy, they didn’t need to stop and rest. The only thing faster than us was the raven. It seemed to be shadowing us rather than rushing ahead to warn the prince that we were coming. With the two Wraith Warriors failing to stop me, they would have returned to their master to give him the news. He knew I was here and that I was gunning for him.

  We galloped through numerous more villages and towns. Someone finally noticed the curtains on the carriage doors and raised an alarm. During the next week or so, Demon Lords and captains began to follow us until a convoy of vehicles raised a cloud of dust in our wake.

  Sam squeezed in beside me to look out through the back window. I took up most of the seat. “I hope we do not encounter anything that will bar our way,” he said in a worried tone. “There must be hundreds of demons following us by now. If we are forced to stop, they will be on us before we can flee.”

  Naturally, that was enough to jinx us. The nightmares came to an abrupt stop roughly half an hour later. We stuck our heads out the windows to see a wide river of lava ahead. The bridge that had crossed it had collapsed and only black pillars and shattered rock remained. It looked like it had happened recently. The river stretched out to either side and I couldn’t see an easy way to cross it.

  Morax spoke before panic could set in. One of the captains knows of a way to cross the river.

  I didn’t waste any time in small talk. The convoy was r
apidly gaining on us and they’d be here within the hour. How?

  Through a tunnel that runs beneath it.

  Sensing there was something he wasn’t telling me, I frowned. Will it be dangerous to use the tunnel?

  That depends on whether the creature that created it is still in residence.

  Heaving a sigh, I climbed out and Sam scrambled after me. Which way do I go?

  Head right, Morax replied.

  “We’ll see you guys on the other side,” I said to the hellhorses. Tossing their heads in agreement, they disappeared to the nowhere lands to wait until they were needed again.

  I didn’t bother to ask Sam’s permission to carry him. I could run a lot faster than he could and he’d only slow me down. I picked him up in my arms like he was a child. He gave an indignant squawk, but he didn’t protest as I took off. He’d said it himself, our pursuers would catch up to us if we delayed any longer.

  Following Morax’s directions, I sprinted alongside the river of lava. Bright orange and red bubbles of gas rose and burst to splatter the bank every now and then. I stayed far enough away that Sam wouldn’t be cooked by the heat. He still had to raise a hand to shield his eyes from the glare.

  I sprinted for a few miles and still there was no end to the river. It stretched towards a mountain range where lava flowed endlessly from one of the peaks. It was lower than the other mountains and it looked as though it had exploded eons ago.

  The mouth of the tunnel should be near the trees ahead, Morax warned me. I slowed down to a trot, being careful to avoid the damp patches at the base of the petrified trees. The snakes that lived in the ooze weren’t that dangerous, but they would slow me down if I accidentally fell into one of their pits.

  Angling around the trees, I saw a depression and headed towards it. A shaft around ten feet wide led down into darkness. How deep is it, I asked when I was still a few feet away.

  Twenty feet or so, Morax replied.

  If I’d still been human, that would have been enough to make me look for another way to cross the river. An unpleasant musty smell wafted up from the opening. Sam peered down the shaft and the look he gave me was frightened. “Please tell me we are not going to jump into a worm hole.”

  Looking back towards the road, I saw the convoy closing in on the collapsed bridge. Dozens of carriages had joined the chase. Not even Morax would be able to fight that many foes and hope to win. I could have called on my hounds for assistance to help me fight them, but crossing beneath the river seemed like the better option. “We sure are,” I said to Sam and leaped into the darkness.

  My eyesight adjusted to the pitch black as we fell. Sam clapped a hand over his mouth to muffle his scream of fright. I landed on my feet when I hit the ground then promptly lost my balance and started to slide down a sharp slope. Whatever had made the tunnel had to be tough to bore through the arid soil. It also had to be huge. “Tell me about the worms,” I said to Sam when the ground leveled out.

  He waited for me to put him down before answering. “They are blind, vicious and will eat anything. They do not have ears, but they can sense vibrations in the ground. If the worm that created this tunnel is anywhere in the area, it will already know that we are here.”

  “Awesome,” I muttered and pulled my dagger. The blade remained dull silver, which meant we weren’t in immediate danger. Glancing down at Sam, I saw that his eyes were open as wide as they could go and his pupils were huge. He blinked owlishly and I waved my hand in front of his face. He gave no sign that he’d seen it. “You can’t see, can you?” I said softly.

  He shook his head and his expression fell. “It is just one more sign that I will soon become useless to you.”

  We’d already had this conversation and nothing I said would change his mind about that. “Hold onto me,” I said and guided his hand to the belt loops of my jeans. “Don’t let go.”

  “You do not have to worry about that,” he replied quietly. “I have no wish to be left here all alone in the dark to become worm food.”

  With my new size, the roof of the tunnel was only two feet above me. Claustrophobia reared its ugly head and the walls seemed to slowly close around me as I made my way along the tunnel.

  We only walked a few yards before I saw another tunnel branching off to the left. The stench of worm clogged my nasal passages. It was strong enough to drown out the odor of sulfur. “How many tunnels do you think it’s made?” I murmured.

  “Dozens most likely,” Sam replied. “It will have a nest where it takes its food in the center of the tunnels. We should avoid it at all costs.”

  Curiosity got the better of me and I had to ask. “Why?”

  “Do you remember the bugs that we saw in the fourth realm? The ones that stripped the hellsnake down to a skeleton in mere seconds?”

  They’d had long legs that dangled down. One of them had brushed it on the surface of a snake pit as a lure to bring one of the creatures to the surface. The feeding frenzy that had resulted when the hellsnake had erupted from the ooze had been remarkable. “Yeah. I remember.”

  “I have heard that worms have parasites that live in their nests. They eat their cast off food and generally keep the nest clean. They are either the same type of bug that was in the swamp, or they are a close cousin to them.”

  He’d called the bugs hell’s equivalent to piranhas and it was an accurate description for them. “Right. I guess we’ll stay away from the nest then.” Looking down the side tunnel, I made sure nothing was lurking in the darkness before continuing on.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Forty-One

  It should have been cooler now that we were beneath the ground, but the lava that was flowing above us kept the tunnels warm. Sweat dripped down Sam’s face and he had to keep wiping it away with his sleeve. The heat wasn’t a problem for me. My new demonic form was far more suitable to being in hell than my human form was.

  Hearing something slither somewhere in the rabbit warren of tunnels, I froze. Sam bumped into me then went still as well. “What is it?” he asked in a panicked whisper.

  “I think I heard the worm,” I replied in a low voice. It had been distant, but even that small noise had been enough to warn me that this thing was big.

  Sam gave a small moan of fright and I picked up the pace a little as I continued. My head turned left and right each time we came to another tunnel that intersected the main one. We were still crossing beneath the lava and had to be nearing the end by now. The river had only been about half a mile wide.

  Scarlet light flaring to life on my dagger was my first warning that we were in danger. A muffled roar came from the wall to our left. Acting on instinct, I picked Sam up and tossed him back the way we’d come. My dagger transformed into an axe just as the worm burst through the wall, showering me with dirt.

  A gigantic mouth with multiple rows of triangular teeth that would have been at home on a shark smashed into me. I was pinned against the wall and its teeth cut into my legs as I hacked at it with my axe. I did my best to ignore the blood that flowed from the deep gashes in my shins. Flinching when the blade bit into its gum, the worm roared in rage. I dove to the side as it tried to ram me again. Spinning around, I sliced into its rubbery black hide, but the axe made little impression on it.

  I sent a desperate question to Morax. Do these things have any weaknesses?

  None that I know of, he replied unhelpfully. It did not seem to like you cutting its mouth. Target the area near its teeth and it may back off.

  It was worth a try, so I swung the axe at its gums again. Black blood spurted from it and it flinched in reaction. After a few more slices, it thrashed in agony then began to retreat. It slithered backwards rapidly until it disappeared from sight.

  The scarlet light faded from my axe and I made it change back into a dagger again. As always, transforming it made the blood magically disappear. Looking down at my saturated jeans, I wished I could do the same to my clothing. Rips and tears would eventually heal, but the bloodsta
ins had to be washed out.

  “Are you alright?” Sam asked when he approached me.

  He walked slowly with his hands outstretched. He hadn’t seen the fight and he had no idea that I was wounded. White bone showed through the tears in my flesh. I pushed the pain to the back of my head. “I’m fine. We should get going before it comes back.”

  Guiding his hands to the belt loops in my jeans again, I limped at a fast walk until we reached an incline at the end of the tunnel. Faint light shone down from above and the smell of sulfur wafted down to us.

  Putting my dagger away, I had to scramble upwards with both hands. Sam held onto me grimly until I reached the shaft that led back to the surface. I was far stronger than I’d ever been before and I was fairly sure I’d be able to get us out. “Climb onto my back,” I instructed Sam and crouched down. He clambered up and wrapped his thin arms around my neck.

  Judging the distance, it looked about twenty feet high again. I launched myself upwards and shot straight into the air. I overshot the ground by a few feet and realized I was going to fall straight back down again. Morax surged forward to take over. He did a somersault and landed on the edge of the hole. Teetering for a moment, he lurched forward a step, taking us out of danger.

  “Phew,” Sam said with a heartfelt sigh of relief. “I am glad you did not fall backwards. It would not have been pleasant having your bulk landing on top of me.”

  “I’d have squashed you like a bug,” I agreed with a snigger. Thanks, I said to Morax.

  It was nothing, he replied nonchalantly, as if he did this sort of thing every day.

  Looking across the river, I saw demons on foot searching for us. They’d followed our tracks and would no doubt be on our trail soon. With Sam still clinging to me, I took off at a sprint again.