He resumed the hauling, now being more careful where he set his feet. His breath was short as he labored, and he was sweating, but he made progress. Again he wondered idly about the physiological effects here in the spirit realm; had he not known where he was, he would have had no way to tell that he was not in the mortal realm. To a spirit, the spirit world seemed just as tangible as the physical world did to a mortal.
They came in above the fire-rapids, launched the canoe, and paddled on upstream. In due course they reached the fourth encampment and made the connection. Then all they had to do was proceed on back down the River of Fire.
Dusk was at hand as they reached the foul Acheron again; instead of entering it, they landed the canoe and made camp at the fringe of the fire zone. There was nothing to drink except some of the firewater, and nothing to eat except tubers they were able to scrounge from the scorched soil. But they stuck the tubers on the ends of long sticks and toasted them at the fire on the river; the tubers were edible if not enjoyable. The firewater did not properly slacken their thirst, but it soon caused them to cease to worry about the matter. They talked, laughed, rolled together, and decided it was time to get serious about sex ... and discovered they could not. The firewater had not only inflamed their desire, it had made one or the other of them impotent. Ligeia found that hilarious, but Mym suspected that in the morning, when he was sober, he would not be laughing. Unrequited lust-trust Hell to be the place for that sort of experience!
Indeed, when the morning came, he was not laughing. His body ached from the exertions of the prior day, and his head felt as if he had soaked it overnight in the stenchwater of the Acheron. Ligeia seemed little better off; her beauty was now overlaid by grime and fatigue. "Oh, my clothing!" she fussed. "No one would take me for a princess now!"
"True," Mym muttered. "They would take you for a woman."
She glanced at him. "Are you making fun of me?"
"No. I never really cared for princesses, but I have known some fine women." Actually that was a confusion, perhaps spawned by his hangover. He did care for princesses, and needed one to share his life. But at the moment he really craved a woman of the nature of Orb, who had brought him up when he had been low and loved him without questioning his nature. Ligeia was both princess and woman-but the woman aspect was becoming more important to him.
"Oh." She considered for a moment. "But don't you prefer pretty women?"
"Second only to caring ones."
"You are making fun of me!"
"Come read my mind." He took her hand and drew her in to him. She came, making only token resistance. He phased in to her-and discovered a kind of tinder that ignited explosively as it encountered the developing flame of his emotion. There was a dialogue, occurring in an instant; parsed into its components it might have been rendered like this:
"But I'm not ready to love!" she protested.
"You don't need to," he responded. "I'm on the rebound."
"This sort of thing is supposed to take time!"
"We'll give it time."
"Too late! I'm already raging with desire!"
"That's my desire!"
"Not any more!"
They disengaged and looked at each other. "I'm not sure we should have done that," Mym said.
"I'm not sure we should be doing this," she replied.
"Be doing what?"
"What we couldn't do last night." She began removing her clothing.
Mym realized that they had no secrets from each other. It did make sense to complete what they had started in their minds. On the prior night it would have been largely wasted in their besotted state, but now they could appreciate it to its full extent with their minds clear.
He removed his own clothing. "Afterwards, we can wash up in firewater," he remarked.
That set her off again, laughing. Her whole body jiggled with her mirth.
There was a sound from the river. Mym looked up and saw a great fiery shape emerging from the water. "What's that?" he asked, alarmed.
Ligeia looked. "The Fireman!" she shrieked.
"The what?"
"The denizen of the River of Fire! I thought he was a myth! We must flee!"
"I'll fight him!" Mym said, getting to his feet.
"You can't!" she protested. "He bums everything!"
Mym faced the emerging monster and reached for the Red Sword. But of course the Sword was gone, along with the rest of his clothing. Gone? He had never brought it into Hell! He had no weapon.
The Fireman pointed at a small tree. A jet of flame came from his hand, and the tree burst into fire. The Fireman pointed at the river; the jet touched it, and the water boiled into a cloud of vapor. The Fireman pointed at Mym.
Mym snatched up his cloak and dodged to the side. The ground where he had been standing jumped as if struck by a bomb, and smoke roiled up.
"Flee!" Ligeia cried, terrified.
Mym concluded that this was good advice. He grabbed her hand and fled.
They ran to the shore of the Acheron, and the Fireman did not pursue them there. He hovered for a moment where they had camped, then marched back into the Phlegethon.
When they returned to their campsite, they found only slag and ashes. Their clothing and the canoe had been destroyed. The only other survivor was the snake.
They stood there. "Maybe we shouldn't have," Ligeia said.
"We didn't." Mym reminded her.
"Well, we were going to."
But now the mood was gone. It would have to wait for another time.
They resumed their trip, walking carefully in their bare feet. Fortunately, Ligeia said, their next and final stop was not far ahead. They proceeded to the juncture of the rivers and walked along the bank of the Acheron; in an hour or so came to the merger with the greatest of all Hell's rivers, the Styx. It was so vast as to seem like an ocean in itself, and its waters were inky black and seemed deep beyond imagination. Out across its somber surface, near the horizon, strange waves developed, as if some massive and sinister creature swam below. Mym would not have wanted to take a canoe out there!
In another hour they reached the encampment of the final group. There were women here-indeed, it seemed to be an Amazon community-and they looked at Mym appraisingly, as if judging whether his flesh would be better for soup or for pot roast. But Ligeia spoke up, telling them that Mym was Mars, the Incarnation of War, and needed to meet with their leader privately. They were impressed, for they were warlike women, and soon Mym was closeted with the head Amazon. He explained in a few words, then phased in with her.
"Lovely!" she exclaimed as they disengaged. "You may count on us."
The Amazons provided them with clothing and a tent to stay in and fed them well. "We shall coordinate the signals," their leader assured Mym. "Give us a day, while you rest."
Then Mym and Ligeia retired to their tent, at last having the chance to do what they wished without intrusion and found themselves both so tired that they simply flopped on the fragrant straw and slept.
16 - REVOLT
In the morning things were ready. Mym and Ligeia and the snake emerged from the tent to find the Amazons in full combat dress. Each stood tall and proud with her bow and quiver of arrows, her left breast full and perfectly molded, her right breast absent. The right one was, of course, burned off in childhood, so that it never developed and thus could never interfere with the drawing of the bowstring. "But we have two problems," Diana, the Amazon leader, said. "First, we lack efficient means of travel. Only the demons can use the front routes, and the back routes, as you know, are slow and treacherous. Since it is necessary for you to be at all the key sites-"
"What is the second problem?" Mym asked.
"There is a demon spy among us."
"Don't hurt the snake!" Ligeia exclaimed. "It has done us no harm!"
"Except to report of your whereabouts every night," Diana said.
"We knew its mission," Mym said. "We saw to it that it did not know our actual plan."
> "Still, now that plan must be revealed, and surprise is of the essence. That demon must be abolished."
"It's not a demon, it's a snake," Ligeia protested.' "The soul of an animal."
"How do you know?"
"It got cold. A demon would not have been affected."
Mym glanced at the snake, startled. It was true; demons had no vulnerability to extremes of temperature, as they had to function in all the climes that made souls suffer. Yet, that being the case-
"It must still be a spy," Diana said. "We must hack it to pieces, so that it can not report on our activity."
"But you can't kill a soul," Mym said.
"But we can do the equivalent," she said. "When we do to it what would be the killing of a mortal, it becomes nonfunctional for a day, just as the demons do. That is all the time we need."
"But we can't even be sure it is a spy," Ligeia said. "It's just a snake Satan used to gag me, and then it stayed with us. Maybe it had no choice."
"I can settle this," Mym said. "I will phase in to it." He approached the snake and put his hand on its body. The snake did not try to avoid him.
In a moment he knew two things, and one of them astonished him. The snake was a spy for Satan--and the snake did not want to be. It had spied because it knew that Satan would have put it into perpetual torture if it did not cooperate. So it had reported each night to a demon who came to meet it. But it wished there were some other choice. When Ligeia had warmed it, it had been grateful to her, for no other creature had shown it such consideration during its life or its Afterlife. But it had had no way to escape its assignment.
But now you have a way, Mym thought to it. Join the revolt.
The snake was amazed. You would have me?
The revolt is open to anyone or anything who shares its precepts.
Then I join it.
Will other animals join it? Mym inquired.
If they knew they would be accepted and rewarded as the human souls are.
Mym disengaged. "The snake will join us, if we will accept it. Other animals may do the same. Do you see what this means?"
"The animals-will join us?" Diana asked incredulously. "Even the hellhounds?"
"We can but inquire," Mym said. "It is a risk of betrayal, but if successful-"
"You are the leader, Mars," Diana said. "If you are ready to take that risk-"
"I believe I am. 1 believe the snake speaks for its kind and perhaps for others. If we offer them the same terms-"
Diana shrugged. "Then we shall not protest."
Mym phased in to the snake again. He thought the terms to it. Bring those animals who accept this here, he concluded.
The snake slithered away. "Now we wait," Mym said.
It was a painful process, waiting until the animals responded. But the benefit could be critical. Hours passed.
Then two hellhounds bounded toward the camp. The Amazons raised their bows, arrows knocked. Hellhounds were hard to put out of business, because they were so large and tough, but arrows through the eyes and paws could do it.
The hellhounds slowed and paused, then walked slowly on toward the group, tracked by the arrowheads. When they reached the center, Mym approached. He touched one and phased in.
The animals were willing. They hated Hell as much as the human souls did. Most animals retired at death to their own Afterlives, but some few were caught up in the human system, particularly those who had been pets or associates of man. They wanted to be free of it just as much as the human souls did.
Then we shall include you in the reckoning, on the same basis as the human souls, Mym thought to it. I, the human Incarnation of War, pledge this.
I, the representative of the animals, accept this, the hellhound thought back. How may we serve you?
We require transportation.
We can provide it.
So the pact was made. The two hellhounds loped away.
In an hour, two wild horses galloped in. Their dark manes flung out and their nostrils snorted steam; they were killer equines, damned for killing men. But for this they were tame.
Ligeia, being a princess, knew how to ride well. She and Mym mounted. "You know what to do," Mym called to Diana as they rode away.
The horses galloped to the nearest ford and crossed the Acheron. People afoot would not have been able to do it, because of the foulness of the water, but these horses were toughened to it. Then they carried Mym and Ligeia to the checkpoint of their region of Hell.
This was simply a guard station at the intersection of several paved roads. A demon guard stood there, holding a flamethrower. It was obvious that any soul who tried to pass this-point would get burned. Spiked fences extended from the checkpoint away across the terrain, and Mym knew that those would not be subject to passing, either; Hell surely had ways to make a fence tight. The only interruption of such a fence would be a river, which explained how the canoe had gotten them through.
They rode up on the wild horses and dismounted. The demon's gaze followed them, and its flamethrower was ready. Mym took a step toward the checkpoint, then seemed to hesitate. "I don't think we can go this way," he said to Ligeia.
"Oh, and I did so want to be alone with you," she said, speaking the line they had rehearsed.
They started to turn away. "Halt!" the demon cried.
They paused. The thing had taken the bait! "Oh, don't let that demon get me!" Ligeia cried.
"Where were you going?" the demon demanded.
Ligeia turned, evincing a fright that was not wholly feigned. "I just-nowhere," she said, trembling.
The demon's red eyes glowed more brightly as he surveyed her body. Drool dribbled from a tusk. Demons might be incapable of such human emotions as love, but they could compass lust, and Ligeia's figure incited that. "You can be alone with me, wench, and I don't care who watches!"
"No!" she cried.
The demon aimed the flamethrower. "Come here, wench-or fry!"
Reluctantly, Ligeia approached the demon. Then, just as it was about to grab her, she screamed.
The demon dropped like a clod of manure. Mym hurried in and hauled it out of the box. Then he took the flamethrower and fired it, playing the flame over the demon's body. Foul smoke went up as the body burned and vaporized. In a moment, nothing was left.
Mym waved his arm in a signal across the field. Immediately the hidden Amazons rose up, running toward the checkpoint.
A demon was coming down the road, evidently off duty from some mission of malice. "Hey, get back to work, you sluts!" it cried. But the Amazons charged right at it and, in a moment, had overwhelmed it and hacked it to pieces. The revolt was on!
Diana arrived at the checkpoint. "Take over," Mym told her, presenting the flamethrower.
"No demon shall pass. Mars!" she said, thumping her chest on the flat right side with her fist. "We'll mop up those remaining in this sector, never fear!"
They led the wild horses through, and Mym and Ligeia remounted on the other side of the checkpoint. They galloped toward the next one.
Mym was pleased. This first mission had gone smoothly, and the upper echelon of Hell had not been warned. If they could take out the other four as readily, the revolt would succeed before Satan even knew it was in progress.
For it was no secret exit from Hell that Mym had sought. He knew there was none. He had acquainted the leaders of the major sections with his plan for an organized rebellion, occurring virtually simultaneously in several regions, so that the demonic forces would be unable to concentrate on any one. There were a thousand damned souls for every demon, and only the tight organization and repressive tactics of the demons kept the souls cowed. As long as the major sections of Hell were sealed off from each other, no revolt could succeed, because the demons would wipe it out by concentrating their force. The other sections would be unable to assist, if they even knew what was going on. Then, of course, there would be a brutal extra ration of torture for all those who had participated in the uprising. The thing about
torture in Hell was that there was no necessary end to it; what would cause a mortal to die in agony merely caused the agony here. Those who did the equivalent of dying woke again the following day, for a resumption of the torture. And the demons were adept at easing up just shy of that momentary relief, so that there was. no period of unconsciousness. No, it really wasn't worth it, making trouble in Hell!
Of course they could not come at the next checkpoint from the central road; the demons would know immediately that two souls mounted on wild horses did not belong there. They had to cross at the rear and approach from inside. This checkpoint had merely gotten them into the region of fire; it had not given them freedom of Hell's highways. But since they did not have to follow the devious river channel, they did gain time.
The wild horses, out of their territory, were not familiar with this region, but Ligeia had enough of a notion of it to guide them. They skirted the worst of the blazes and found the camp of the damned souls of this region. "It's on!" Mym called as they galloped through. "Prepare the ambush! The Amazons are in control of their sector!"
There was immediately activity in the camp, as the souls moved out. They would remain hidden until Mym and Ligeia did their job, as would the Amazons.
In due course they emerged from a region of smoldering grass to come in sight of the checkpoint. Here the demon had a firehose, for a flamethrower would hardly stop those who were acclimatized to fire. The water that the hose would squirt was poisonous and would cause any flesh it touched to die and rot. This was just as effective in its fashion as the flamethrower at the other site.
At this station there were two female demons. The vulnerable-girl ploy would not work here; demonesses were no less lustful than the males, but their tastes differed. So for this one Mym made himself invisible and walked up alone. He carried a sharp knife that the Amazons had given him, fashioned from a fragment of bone. Again he wondered how there could be bones where there was no mortal flesh and no true dying; he could only conjecture that Hell was stocked with all manner of repulsive things, including bones.
His foot struck a pebble, and the nearer demoness looked up. She opened her mouth-but Mym leaped at her and cut her throat before she could speak.
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