A pit in my stomach formed at his words.
I’d have to play the game with this guy, too. I didn’t know who the hell he was, but everyone and their mother in the academy taught that this was one bad dude. He was clever, yes, but he was also the embodiment of evil.
The side of his mouth turned up in a half-smile that suggested he may be able to hear my thoughts just like the valkyries.
To verify, I turned my mind back to Claire.
“The dragon who follows you is the lion,” he declared an instant before resuming our walk. “A wonderful, beautiful lion.” He released a serene sigh. “Well, she seems clever enough when in discussion, but her base impulse is to attack. That, of course, makes you the elk, I’m afraid.”
“So I gathered,” I said as we began heading down an escalator. “Where does this lead?”
“To the lava streams,” he answered. “Don’t worry, though, I shall deliver you safely to the other side, for you are giving me something that I dearly desire.”
“I am?”
“You are,” he affirmed.
“What’s that?”
He merely smiled again in response.
Chapter 32
Basil stayed relatively quiet as we traversed the rocks that led us through the pits of lava.
He seemed to be focused on the task at hand, so I didn’t want to interrupt his train of thought. I feared if I pestered him in any way, it could make him slip into the pool of fire, and while he may be equipped to survive such a thing, I was relatively certain I could not. Not that I would necessarily fall in after him, but I didn’t know how all of this worked, so why chance it? And even if I didn’t fall in after him, it may serve to piss him off enough to pull me in anyway.
The interesting part of this journey through this section was that it wasn’t hot.
It should have been.
We were surrounded by bubbling, molten rock. That shit was known for being hot and steamy.
But I noticed no change in temperature. In fact, it was almost as if we were walking on a glass-like material that hovered over the burning sea.
I went to test this theory, when Basil said, “I wouldn’t do that, if I were you.”
Instead of dipping my shoe in the lava, I set it back on the rock and continued following him along. Okay, so lava that doesn’t radiate heat exists on level nine. Clearly it was still dangerous stuff or Basil wouldn’t have said anything, and it was also apparent that he was a man—or whatever—of his word, since he stopped me from injuring myself.
But I still didn’t know what this mysterious thing I was apparently providing to him was, or why he was so happy to receive it.
If it was my “soul” or whatever, why would he go through all this trouble to bring me to the other side of the level before taking it? It was pretty apparent that he could manipulate me quite easily.
This guy had to be the devil, right?
Who else could make you feel equally safe and seriously freaked out in the same instant? The master manipulator, yeah? To be fair, I didn’t believe the devil even existed. Yes, I knew all about gods and angels and demons and such, but a single God with a big “G” and a dude who was thrown down into a pit of fire and all that? None of the supernaturals believed that stuff. That was for normals to dig into, not us.
I looked around at the pit of fire and then up at the back of Basil’s perfectly slicked-back hair.
“Hmmm,” I said with a raised eyebrow. Then I snorted. “Nah.”
“You’re correct,” Basil stated. “I’m not the devil. In fact, there is no devil. Nor is there, as you put it, a God with a big ‘G.’” He chuckled. “Clever way to say it, though.”
“Thanks.” I jumped to another rock. “So who are you, then?”
“I’m Basil,” he replied. “We’ve already been through that.”
“I know the name you’ve given me, but who are you?”
He stepped off the rock path and up to a section of the circle that had a big red “Exit” sign hanging in the air. That was a little awkward.
In response to my question, he removed his glasses and stared into my eyes.
His eyes were swirling pools of yellow that were spinning in opposing directions in a rhythmically hypnotic way.
“Wow,” I said. “That’s cool.”
He jolted upright and tilted his head at me.
“That’s odd.” He pulled out a mirror and looked at himself. “They seem to be working just fine. Let me try that again.”
He tucked the mirror away and then gave me a full stare.
I leaned in and studied his irises. They looked really sweet. I didn’t know if this was some kind of magic or a newfangled style of contact lenses, but they were awesome.
“Dude, those things are fantastic.”
Basil glanced away. “What the shit is going on?”
“With what?” I asked, confused.
“You should be dead.”
“I should?” I then touched my chest and stomach. “I’m not, right?”
He frowned at me. “No, you idiot.”
“Name-calling?”
“Sorry,” he said with a heavy sigh. “I just don’t understand it. I’ve stared at you. You’ve looked right into my eyes. Yet, you remain alive.”
“So?”
“So I’m a basilisk!”
I snapped my fingers and pointed at him.
“That’s the name I couldn’t remember. Man, it’s been driving me nuts. I knew I’d heard it time and again because the teachers really drove it home with us, you know? They were like, beware of the basilisk in level nine because he’ll—” I paused and looked up at him. “Wait, you were going to kill me just now?”
“Duh.”
“What the fuck, dude?” I said, putting my hands on my hips. “You said you were going to deliver me safely.”
“Over the lava pit, yes,” he replied, nodding. “And if you look behind you, you’ll see that I’ve done just that. But I wasn’t going to just let you leave.”
That was disheartening. Here I was thinking this was some kind of cool guy. Creepy as fuck, sure, but still cool. The hair, the look, the shades…it all rang “mojo.”
But…
“You’re a dick, man,” I said, shoving him in the chest.
His swirly eyes opened very wide.
“Did you just push me?”
“Fucking right, I did,” I said as I took a step toward him. “I oughta kick your ass right here and now.”
He held up his hands to protect himself.
There may have even been some whimpering going on.
I blinked.
“You’re kidding me,” I said as I lowered my fists. “You’re a wuss?”
“No,” he yelled in a pathetic voice.
“Oh, my God,” I cackled. “You’re a frickin’ wuss.”
“Don’t talk about me like that!”
I crossed my arms. “Or you’ll do what?”
“I…I…” He started sobbing.
“Ah jeez,” I said, laughing. “This is unbelievable. So you’re basically a badass as long as your freaky eye trick works, but if it doesn’t, you’re just a pussy.”
“I…”
He couldn’t finish his sentence.
“All right, all right,” I said, hesitantly patting him on the shoulder. “Let it all out.”
Boy did he.
Basil must have cried for five minutes straight. There were so many tears that wisps of steam did come up when the water from his eyes reached the lava pit.
I didn’t know whether to feel sorry for him or to berate the hell out of him. Fact was that this dude had probably killed tons of people over the years with his creepy stare. He was finally getting a taste of his own medicine.
Good.
“All right, Basil,” I said, lifting up his chin. “I’m not going to kick your ass, but I hope you’ve learned a lesson here.”
“What?”
“How you’re feeling right now is probably
how everyone you’ve ever done the freaky eye-swirl thing to felt moments before they died.” I shook my head at him. “You should be ashamed.”
“I am,” he said as his eyes watered again. “I really, really am.”
I held up my hand to calm him down. He sniffed a couple of times and wiped his eyes.
“So when you said that I was delivering something to you that you dearly desired, you meant my life, right?”
“No,” he said, wiping his nose on his sleeve. That was blasphemous! His suit was gorgeous. I groaned at the vision of it but held my tongue. “I was referring to the dragon named Claire.”
“What about her?”
“She’s the one for me,” he said, staring off into the distance with a look of love on his face. “She has never come down to this level because she knows that I will ensnare her for all eternity.”
Interesting.
“You will?”
“Dragons cannot escape my eyes,” he explained, “and with one such as Claire, I shall use them to captivate her.”
That was cool, if he could manage it. I didn’t know much about basilisks, other than that entire “don’t look in their eyes” shit they drilled into us at the academy, but I assumed he had some way of taming a dragon.
“I do,” he said, proving that he could read my thoughts as well as the valkyries. “We met at a conference in the Netherworld. She was horrible, vile, deceitful…I fell in love instantly. But she had no desire to be with me.” His smile returned and he glanced back the way we came. “But I sense her in my lair now. She has arrived and she will stay here for all eternity, loving me as I have loved her.”
I kind of felt bad for the guy, seeing as how I had kind of gotten to know this Claire chick a bit. She wasn’t bound to love anyone but herself. She’d use Basil and then spit him out.
“You know that she’s—”
“I know her very well, Ian,” Basil said. “Better than she knows herself, in fact. But it doesn’t matter, for in my lair, she will succumb to me and will worship me. It is why I was placed in the deepest level of them all, and why I am not allowed to use my powers anywhere other than here.”
“What do you mean?” I said as I saw Claire coming down the massive escalator.
“My eyes have magic over dragons,” he explained as he stared dreamily up at her. “They cannot resist me.”
“Seriously?”
“Absolutely.”
I looked at the exit and then I looked back at Claire.
“Okay,” I said, “this I gotta see.”
Chapter 33
Claire came up the rocks, hopping from one to the other with grace and agility.
She didn’t slip or teeter even once.
Bitch.
“Come hither, my lovely Claire,” said Basil with his arms out wide. “We shall finally be together.”
“Yeah,” she said without looking up, “I don’t think so, yellow eyes.”
“Huh?”
Claire reached into her pocket and pulled out a pair of sunglasses that looked identical to the ones Basil had been wearing when I’d first met him.
She slipped them on.
“Shit,” said Basil. “Where did you get those?”
“Your mom.”
I tried not to, but I laughed.
“Damn her,” Basil cursed, stomping his foot. “She’s never been supportive of my work.”
My laughter died off. “Wait, really? Your mom makes these?”
“She knows I can’t use my glare on people if they’re wearing those damn things,” Basil replied with a sneer, “so she sells them for ten thousand gold each.”
“Wow.”
That put me in a very bad situation.
While I wasn’t worried about Basil, I knew damn well that Claire could best me in a fight. It’d be tough, but she’d likely win in the end. And with this level being quite cavernous, she could even go into full dragon mode if she wanted to. She wouldn’t, though, because I’d be able to get to the exit before her transformation completed.
“You may as well just give up,” Claire said with a smirk. “I have no problem fighting you, but we both know I’ll win.”
I took out Boomy and pointed it at her chest.
She laughed.
“You know it’s not going to get through my armor.”
I moved it to point at her head.
“Oh,” she said.
Just as I was about to fire, Basil yelled “No!” and pushed my arm up as I pulled the trigger. The bullet ricocheted off the ceiling and headed off through the level as Boomy dislodged from my hand and clanked on the ground, coming precariously close to falling into the lava.
Claire was already on the move, diving for my mid-section.
Just as she tackled me, I threw a right jab at Basil, knocking him on his ass.
You don’t touch my fucking gun.
I rolled with the tackle and launched Claire off me in the process.
Had she been any other fighter, she would have landed on her back; instead, she twisted in midair and hit the ground feet-first.
Impressive.
Basil had gotten back to his feet and was rubbing his cheek. I gave him a “don’t screw with me” look and he backed away. Good thing, too, because I had no qualms about dumping his disturbing ass into the lava. Again, I didn’t know if that would have done anything to him, but seeing that he was getting as far away from me as possible, I had a feeling him falling into that pit wouldn’t be good for his flawless complexion.
Claire was on the move again. She stepped forward and threw a roundhouse kick toward my head. I backed off just enough and then went to take out her other leg. She hopped during rotation and cleared my sweep attempt.
As if in a deathly dance, we parried back and forth, kicking and punching like two kung-fu warriors on one of those movies from the eighties.
I was tempted to say, “My temple is the best,” but I refrained.
This was no time for jokes.
She jumped in close, giving me the chance to dislodge the shades she was wearing.
I caught a hard punch to the gut, knocking the wind out of me, but if I could get those glasses off, it’d be worth it.
They didn’t budge when I grabbed at them.
Claire chuckled as I doubled over and hit the ground.
“They’re magical, asshole,” she said as I fought to catch my breath.
She kicked me on the side of my head, laying me flat out and leaving me there groaning.
Then she stepped over me.
“Besides me, only a wizard or a mage can take these shades off my head.”
That’s when a familiar voice announced, “Perfect.”
Claire’s head jolted up just as a bright spell split her sunglasses in two. An ice ball followed that, knocking Claire back as I kicked out at her legs.
She fell down and slid away as the momentum of frozen spells crashed against her.
Finally, she came to a stop right next to Basil.
His grin was huge as he lovingly looked down into Claire’s eyes.
“Fuck,” she said an instant before her armor faded away.
She convulsed slightly, clearly fighting against those yellow swirling eyes.
Finally, she went still.
Then her demeanor changed radically.
“My love,” she said, reaching out and stroking his hair.
Basil did a fist-pump and whispered, “Yes.”
I got to my feet and glanced over at my crew.
“Thank you,” I said after verifying they were all okay. Then I waved at them. “Don’t look in his eyes. He’s a basilisk.”
They immediately glanced away.
“Are you okay?” Rachel asked. “I was…I mean, we were worried.”
“It’s been…interesting,” I answered. “I hope you guys didn’t have to go through what I just went through.”
“We just had to navigate through a bunch of cliffs and such,” Chuck stated. “Wasn’t that bad. Ju
st took a while.”
“Good.”
Now wasn’t the time to get into my little adventure. Frankly, it was probably never going to be the time. I raised an eyebrow at myself. At least I finally had something I could talk about with Dr. Vernon, assuming we weren’t too busy boning. I scratched my head at that thought, wondering how she’d feel about hanging out with valkyries.
Rachel tilted her head at me, rolled her eyes, and scoffed.
“What?”
“You got laid,” she said. “You’re in the nine levels and you got laid.”
I held up my hands in surrender. “It’s not what you think.” Then I flinched, frowned, and lowered my hands. “And so what if I did?”
“Ugh,” was her only reply.
“Anyway,” I said, spinning back toward Basil, “you got what you wanted, right?”
He was nodding happily as Claire massaged his shoulders.
“Then how about helping us get topside without having to go through too much trouble? Is that possible?”
“Oh, sure,” Basil said. He looked to be incredibly happy at the moment. “I have an elevator over here that will take you straight to the top.”
“You’re kidding,” I replied as we followed him over to an opening in the wall. Sure enough, there were metal doors with an “up” button seated on a panel to the right of them. “You’re not kidding.”
“Nope.”
He then donned his sunglasses and looked up at me. Obviously this was unnecessary since I was clearly immune to his gaze, but the rest of my crew wasn’t, so I appreciated the sentiment.
I picked up Boomy and tucked him safely home.
“You have done me a great service, Ian,” he stated. “While I don’t appreciate that you punched me in the face, I understand why you did it and therefore forgive you.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
The elevator doors opened and everyone piled in.
“Good luck to you all,” Basil said.
“Thanks, pal,” I replied, glancing over at Claire, recognizing she’d never be a thorn in my side again. While I wasn’t a fan of this trickery that the basilisk had used on her, I found solace in the fact that it couldn’t have happened to a nicer dragon. “Have a great honeymoon.”
Blood Bane Tower Page 13
