by C L Walker
And if she wasn’t there for me?
The thought caused me physical pain and I pushed it aside. I couldn’t worry about something I couldn’t control. All I could do was go there and find out.
She couldn’t also be controlled, could she? He couldn’t have gotten to her as well? I’d seen her immunity to the madness of the Chaos member in the mall. Whatever effect he’d had on people’s emotions didn’t work on Bec. She had no emotions to control, no drives to prey upon.
No. I had to focus and stop speculating. There was a simple way to find out, though the pain wasn’t leaving me at the thought of seeing her.
I ran at normal speed through the heaven, conserving the life-force in the tattoos. Where once I’d used my powers without reservation, now I had to be careful. For all my madness, I wasn’t the Agmundr of old.
I stepped into the heaven next door and looked across the blasted plain at the settlement of my people. What I saw had me racing there.
The demon was attacking the town, swiping rickety buildings aside with massive hands. Angels and lesser demons were mounting a defense but they had little to offer beside the immense bulk of the fifty-foot pig creature.
I joined the fight, leaping into the air and delivering a stunning punch with all my enhanced strength behind it. The demon reeled backward, rocked by my blow. He turned to growl at me, swiping through the air as I fell to the ground.
Peter and two other hollow men ran between the buildings to join my attack. I braced myself for the demon’s next swipe, erecting a shield I hoped would deflect it.
Peter’s sword rang off the shield as the other hollow men attacked with their ornate daggers. I turned to them, still confused despite the obvious solution to what was happening.
When the demon attacked he went after the hollow men, crushing their stolen bodies and sending them spinning into the dark sky.
“What’s happening?” I said to nobody in particular.
“Your people have been compromised,” the demon roared above me as he stepped into place to defend me. “The one you call Imp-thing has been relaying incorrect information to me, twisting my words to suit an alien agenda. We are besieged.”
They were compromised as well. I watched as the lost souls poured from the buildings with makeshift weapons in hand, streaming toward me with murder in mind.
“How long?” I said.
“I don’t know.” He sounded scared, something I had never heard from a demon before. “It could have been from the very beginning and I wouldn’t have been able to tell.”
I had to find Bec and James. I had to make sure they weren’t affected. The thought of Bec turning against me was impossible to wrap my head around. She was many things – a sociopath, a deeply selfish narcissist, and a liar – but she was constant. She was always the same. And she had saved me from Erindis.
Then again, so had Buddy.
“I have to go in,” I said.
“They are all enemies now,” the demon said. His voice made the ground tremble. His movements as he prepared for the coming offensive made it jump.
“They can’t be.”
“When you run, so will I.” The demon stepped forward, over me and toward the lost souls. “Until then, may our battle be glorious.”
I sped up, burning through the power I’d taken from Buddy. Everything slowed down around me and I moved between the attacking lost souls until I stood before the broken down little building that housed my master. I stepped inside and let the world speed up.
Bec was waiting for me, a knife to James’s throat.
“No,” I said, unwilling to see the evidence before me.
“My lord Anarchy wills this,” she said. “You can strike me, but I will harm your master first.”
It wasn’t true; I could move fast enough to take the knife from her before she could do anything with it. Before she could complete the thought. But it was Bec, and I didn’t want to hurt her. She wouldn’t have changed sides and I had to believe she had once been true to me. This was all Bannon, and for that he would suffer.
“I will drag your god through the thousand hells,” I said. “Touch that boy and I will give him a guided tour.”
She didn’t move. The blade rested on James’s skin. The boy looked up at me, unsure of the world around him.
“The god Anarchy requests your presence,” Bec said. “Go to him, or this ends here.”
I ran, spending more life-force I couldn’t replace. I left the settlement and leapt through the first gate I could find, landing in a heaven I hadn’t seen before.
I was lost, and the red rage had failed me. Everything and everyone had failed me.
Chapter 31
The heaven was an enormous valley between sheer cliffs. Waterfalls burst from the rock face and disappeared into the mists below.
Between the cliffs a million poles had been erected. They stretched from the invisible ground far below and were the only surface available for walking.
I balanced on one of the poles and tried to calm down. Wizened old souls could be seen all around, settled into place in odd, contorted positions.
Everyone. I had been desperately searching for allies, running around the city and finding nothing but betrayal. Enemies everywhere, even in the settlement I was meant to lead. Even Bec.
How long? My mind was looking for patterns, trying to spot the moment when they stopped being my friends and started being acolytes of Bannon’s crazy religion. But there were no easy points, no perfect divisions between friend and foe. Nothing appeared to change in them until the moment they attacked me.
I had to assume they had always been working for him, and if that was the case then everything I’d done since being stolen from Erindis was their doing. They had wanted me to deal with the vampires and the witches, to try to find them a home. Except it couldn’t be simply to find them a home. That would be a cover to get me moving.
Why would they want me to speak to everyone, if everyone was already in on it? What was Bannon gaining by having me roam the city on a fool’s errand?
One of the people near me changed poles. He hopped on one foot for a moment before making the leap to the next pole. Once there he settled down again in another strange pose.
They had started attacking me when Roman returned from the mountaintop. That seemed to be the moment when everything changed. Roman had seen the power waiting there and he’d told Bannon, who’d decided to end the ruse and my life.
Except Chaos had been waiting for us when Roman and I came back. The betrayal had been decided before we even went.
Bannon had known about the mountaintop, and Roman had been his scout.
It made sense, though how the soldier knew something I had only just discovered was beyond me. It provided a reason to get me active and talking to the key players in the city. It was a plot to force me to go to the cleric, and so reveal his location.
That was why Bec and Roman had taken me down the path toward freedom, but I’d ruined it when I insulted Nikolette. Had she been in on it then too, or had that come later?
It didn’t matter. I could see the pattern, the plan, though it required movements on a scale I found hard to believe.
And yet I had accepted that Bec could plan on such a scale. I’d thought she could guess my actions until the moment I was sitting before Nikolette with my freedom being discussed. I hadn’t questioned her, had in fact admired her.
I wanted to kill them all. It was the only thought that made sense to me. They were liabilities, forcing me to act or risk death. In my life that had always been the reserve of my master, but now it was an entire community, and it had to end. When things were done I had to tear it all down to protect myself.
“You’re an idiot,” I said. Though I’d spoken barely above a whisper my voice echoed through the valley, over and over until it faded away.
They weren’t the problem, I knew. They weren’t the ones who’d brought this mess into the city. I had. My presence changed everything and if I hadn’t appea
red then Bannon wouldn’t have been empowered. If not for me Bec would still have a father, though she never spoke to him. She wouldn’t be controlled by a mad man and made to dance to his whims.
I was the problem, and I needed to rectify it. I had to kill Bannon and free them, assuming they could be freed. And then I had to leave. The longer I spent around people I cared for the worse their lives would be.
I could take my master and put him somewhere he would live forever, find a heaven where he could be happy for eternity, and then have him return me to the locket. Once there, James wouldn’t be able to leave and so nobody would be able to summon me again. The universe would pass away and I would never have to face what I had done to anyone.
I was being weak. There were steps I could take between eternal exile and causing destruction around me. I would have to find those steps, but they didn’t change what I had to do next.
I closed my eyes and breathed the clean air of the heaven into my lungs. Birds were singing somewhere nearby, perhaps in the trees atop the cliffs. There was water in the air, spray from the enormous waterfalls being blown down the valley by the breeze. Someone made the jump from one pole to the next and the subtle sound added the great whole of the heaven.
I told myself I was calm and in control. I lied in the hope it would become true.
I had to rescue James and then face Bannon. If that meant confronting Bec again then I would do that. If that meant hurting her, then I would do that too. I could apologize afterward, if she’d listen.
I closed my eyes and felt for the gate to the HND. It waited for me above the pole behind me. It flickered in my mind’s eye, flashing red and white when it caught the light that came from nowhere.
I leapt to the pole, showing none of the grace the old soul had shown, and stepped back through the gate.
Chapter 32
An enormous hand came crushing down on me as soon as I arrived. I dove to the side and the tattoos erected a weak barrier, wasting yet more of my energy.
The demon sat beside the gate. Around him were the smashed bodies of lost souls and angels, writhing in pain.
“So sorry,” the demon said calmly. “I wasn’t expecting you to return so soon.”
“No harm done,” I said. “What’s happening here?”
“I decided not to run after all.” He shifted from one buttock to the other. Oily sweat dripped from his naked skin to the dry earth. “I’ve decided to protect this heaven until you defeat your enemy. Or he defeats you.”
“What will you do then?” I asked as I examined the settlement in the distance. It was quiet, but I could see shapes moving between the buildings, darting from cover to cover.
“If you win I’ll expect your help, as agreed. If you lose then I will go away and find myself somewhere to hide.”
“You don’t sound concerned about either scenario.”
“At this point it is beyond my control. Why worry?”
“You’re protecting the heaven by killing anyone who uses the gates?”
“Not killing,” he replied. He smiled as he spoke, betraying his enjoyment. “Just crushing. If they try to stand I crush them again. It is a fun game.”
“But you don’t kill them?”
“No.” He shifted back to the original buttock. “I believe they are bewitched. It wouldn’t be charitable to slaughter the ensorcelled. What would one say to them when they regain their freedom in hell? Sorry doesn’t seem like it would suffice.”
“Fair point.”
“You have killed many, yes?” He asked the question with the same nonchalance as he’d discussed crushing his former allies.
“I have.” I didn’t know where he was going with his question, but it touched a sore nerve in me.
“Do you think there is a way back to redemption for us? For those of us who have made it a profession to slaughter, I mean?”
“You’re very well spoken for a demon,” I said.
“Have you had many conversations with demons? I think you’d find them more eloquent than you expect. There isn’t a lot to do when you’re turning a cage full of people over a fire. Talking is what we demons do best.”
“I don’t know. In answer to your question, I mean. I don’t know.”
“Pity. I hoped that with your long view on things you might have found some essential truth I had missed.”
“You’re a strange demon,” I said.
“And you are a strange human. We are good bedfellows, you and I.”
“I have to go,” I said as I started toward the settlement.
“They aren’t there anymore.”
I turned back to the demon. “They left?”
“Yes. Let’s walk to the next gate.”
Watching the demon rise was a spectacle. He did so, ostensibly, the same way I would have, but slower and more deliberately. His fat flesh wobbled and got in the way, bunching and making the entire process look painful. When he managed to get to his feet he leaned back down to collect the souls he had crushed, holding them in both hands.
“Your friend took your master and left,” the demon said as we walked. “She gave some orders to the others. Peter is still in the town, if you felt like getting some vengeance. Imp-thing is there too, if you felt like getting some for me.”
“You could get your own revenge,” I said, but I wasn’t really involved in the conversation anymore. Bec had taken James to Bannon, which meant my master was in mortal danger. Destroying Bannon with James around was going to be difficult.
“I could, but again, it would feel unfair.”
“But it wouldn’t be unfair for me?” I said. “That seems a little…unfair to me, I guess.”
“I am only a demon. You are Agmundr. There is no comparison.”
I didn’t know whether that was a boost to my ego or something terrible to tell a person. I suspected the latter, but I didn’t blame the demon. He was right, after all.
“I need a favor,” I said as we approached the gate.
“You would like some of my blood to power your gift.”
“I don’t think of it as a gift,” I said.
“Then give it to me.” The demon laughed. “To live forever with infinite power would be a fine thing.”
“It isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
“Then you are doing it wrong.”
“Probably true.”
The demon sat down beside the gate. He leaned over and fell backward, sending a tremor through the ground as his bulk landed back on his buttocks. He shifted to the right one and put the collection of trophies he’d carried over down around him.
One of the lost souls began to get up and he slammed his hand down on the man. A brief, high-pitched shriek came from the demon’s immense palm, and the soul was silent.
“Great fun,” he said.
“I have to go save my master,” I said. “I’ll come back when I’m done.”
“Or you’ll be dead. Either way, I wish you luck.”
The demon took his right thumbnail and dragged it across his palm, then presented the palm to me. I put my hand on his black, bilious blood and let the tattoos feed.
When I was done the wound on his palm closed and he went back to waiting.
“Thank you,” I said.
“Go,” the demon replied. “Do what you need to do.”
I stepped through the gate and began walking across the endless green plain. I still had to think, of strategies and end games, and the slower pace let me conserve my new life-force.
All the thinking in the world wasn’t going to help me, I knew. I was going to let go and I was going to destroy my enemies, as I had always done.
My humanity was a brief delirium. I was Agmundr, and I was a destroyer of lives.
“So maudlin,” I said. “So very much like Roman.”
I smiled, and it felt good. If I could smile in the face of what had happened, and was yet to happen, then maybe things weren’t as bad as they felt.
They were that bad, of cours
e, but maybe I could deal with them anyway.
I reached the gate to earth and stepped through, raising a shield in preparation as I did.
Chapter 33
For what felt like the first time, Chaos wasn’t waiting for me in the empty lot. Someone had cleaned up their cars and their dead, and left the giant gate open. It was quiet, with only the sounds of passing cars to spoil the sunset city.
Had it been an entire day? I was sure I’d left at night and now I was coming back to the early evening again. Time in the afterlives passed differently to time on earth, I knew, but I suspected it was also me. That I had stopped paying attention to such things as more important issues arose.
I called Sammy, the waitress from the coffee shop. I wanted to know what to expect when I got to Chaos territory and was pleased that I now had a spy in the area. She picked up on the third ring.
“Mystery man,” she said, bright and cheery, as though the world wasn’t crazy. “Coming over for some coffee?”
“I might. What can you tell me?”
“That you don’t answer your phone. I’ve been calling and leaving voicemail, but I think you’re one of those people who can somehow forget their phone when they leave. Am I right?”
I hated the stupid thing, but it made life a lot more convenient. I would have had to learn how to use it at some point, had I planned on sticking around.
“What are they up to?” I asked, trying to keep her focused.
“They’ve gone into war mode,” she said. Her voice was almost a whisper, as though being reminded who she was talking about had also reminded her that they were dangerous and nearby. “There’s people everywhere. New people, too. It’s like they’ve been on a recruiting drive. There must be a couple hundred people going in and out of the building.”
That would make things more time consuming, but not more difficult. They were only human, after all.
“You should get out of there,” I said. “Things are about to get noisy.”
“I’m closing up as we speak. Try not to break the window or anything. I have to clean this up in the morning if you smash something.”
