by SGD Singh
Aquila, Lexi, and Nidhan shot everything from flares to holy water bullets at the swarming creatures, which fell around them with sickening, liquid plops.
Seconds later, the swarm of Underworlders was gone, the tornado of wings disappearing into the darkness through the still corridors and stairwells, and out into the night.
Asha met Aquila's gaze. What… the—
The portal! We'll cover you.
“Asha!” Lexi screamed, and Asha spun at the sound of fear, actual fear in Lexi's voice. “Now!”
Asha turned to the portal and felt the blood drain from her face.
Fourteenth World. Patala Raurava demon. Aquila's barely-controlled fear sent a nauseating shudder through her.
Raurava meant savage monster.
Stumbling toward them through the portal, the demon hit the stone floor with a crash that Asha felt in her teeth. The stench of rotting oranges and burning hair filled her nostrils, making her gag. Vaguely humanoid, the monster was at least ten feet tall, its skin a sulfurous yellow from the waist up, its muscular legs covered in shining, purple-black, iridescent scales that ended in giant cloven hooves.
An enormous hand pushed against the floor, green claws the size of a grizzly bear's raking deep acid gouges into the stone. When the creature raised its hairless head, three impossibly hideous faces turned in the light, and Asha heard Lexi curse. Three milky-white eyes with vertical, reptilian pupils of bright red were sunk into each face, between pointy ears and above skeletal holes that Asha assumed were noses. The mouth that faced them grimaced, revealing rows of shining fangs.
The monster raised itself slowly to its knees, and it seemed to stretch all four of its arms, two facing forward and two backward. It spoke an unintelligible language in a voice like boulders cracking. It flicked a long, forked tongue at them, and one hollow nose flared.
Asha staggered back, and Aquila, Lexi, and Nidhan jumped to stand in front of her, their weapons raised.
The demon tried to get to its feet, and fell back heavily, hitting its hideous head and cracking stones, and seemed to fall unconscious.
“Any time now, Asha!” Nidhan shouted. “Before more of these fancy-pants dudes come through!”
You can do it, Asha!
Looking at Lexi, Asha felt tears sting her eyes.
“No matter what happens, it was worth it,” Lexi said, raising her sword. “All of it. And if we die tonight, then we die, and there's no one I would rather die with.” Lexi looked at Nidhan and Aquila, a slow grin spreading across her face. “But we're not dead yet. Goddamn it, Asha, what the fuck are you waiting for? Close the portal and save the world already! We'll give Handsome here a warm Satya-realm welcome.”
“Handsome?” Nidhan said, laughing.
Lexi said in a perfect French accent, “You 'ave to admit, ee 'as a certain exoteec originality about 'eem.”
“How do you know it's a boy, huh?”
Ranya?
She's in some kind of… trance over there. I'll—don't worry.
Lexi narrowed her gaze and Nidhan turned his attention to his weapons. “I've got three holy water, two pepper grenades, and only one stake.”
Lexi checked her empty revolver and weapons belt. “One holy water grenade, two stakes.”
“Make that six holy water grenades, and ten stakes,” said Asha, handing hers to Lexi. “I won't need them.”
They embraced quickly.
“Uh, Asha, something's—” Nidhan pointed at the portal, and Asha spun, breaking into a run, Aquila at her heels. Without breaking stride, Asha collided with Ranya, sending the Witch sprawling with a powerful kick to her chest.
Snake-like tentacles writhed out of the inky portal and onto the stone floor.
With a furious screech, Ranya was on her feet again in an instant, brandishing her spear. Aquila leapt between them, swinging his gurkha blade, closing in on her, and Ranya jumped back, turning to him with an angry sneer.
Asha tore her attention from Aquila and raised her arms to the portal. Clearing her mind with brutal determination, she focused on shutting the door between the worlds. She embraced the ability, the gift, to expand her mind between worlds.
This, and only this, mattered. Close the portal, or we all die.
Her mind surged with energy, threatening to overload, and Asha felt—actually felt—her eyes glowing for the first time. Her mind finally plugged into the portal's power, like finding the right station on a radio dial, and Asha knew what she had to do. Her every nerve sang with the effort as she began to shut the portal, slamming the doorways between worlds, and the sound of shrieks filled the stone room as the blood of Underworlders washed over her shoes.
Her body and mind begged her to relax, even as the Seers flash of realization pushed her on.
Seven two-way doors. Close the entrances, then the exits.
Then destroy the portal. It was opened once, it can be opened again.
Ranya was screaming something, but Asha could no longer hear what she said.
Chapter 57
Aquila barely flinched at Ranya's mutilated face. The black pit that was once her left eye seemed to glare at him above gritted teeth.
“What's the matter, brother?” Ranya snarled. “Don't you find me attractive anymore?” She kissed at the air, swiping with startling speed at his inner thigh with her spear, emerald Seer rings flashing.
Aquila jumped back even as nausea flared in his guts.
“I wonder what our loving parents would say if they could see their useless, throw away girl now!”
As Ranya swung her spear in a blurred circle at his chest, Aquila leapt, flipping weightlessly to land behind her. Reaching around her waist, he twisted the spear out of her hands with brutal force, and Ranya screamed in frustrated rage.
Holding her arms wrenched behind her, Aquila dug hawk claws into her skin and hissed into Ranya's ear, “Our parents died trying to get you back. They should have killed you when you were born.”
He felt Ranya tense under his grip. “Lying Infernal Guard freak! They had no use for a daughter, just like millions of filthy humans throughout history.” She was trembling with rage. “They kept their precious boy and sold me to the Asura like the greedy cowards they were.”
“The Asura don't take boys, or haven't you noticed? Males can't survive their… training.”
Ranya laughed. “Is that what you Infernal Guard pieces of shit are calling it these days?”
Aquila tightened his grip on her arms, ignoring the pain in his hands as Ranya's flesh began to burn, he felt blood well up under his claws. “Our parents were butchered trying to save you. Believe whatever you want, you deranged psychopath.”
Ranya snapped her head back and Aquila just barely moved aside in time. Pain shot across his cheekbone. The Witch's skin was like hot coals against his hands and Aquila let go reflexively, blocking as her shining claws swiped at his neck, trailing deep cuts across his forearm.
He stumbled back, his gurkha blade in his hand, scrambling to stay between Ranya and Asha as the Witch moved with a furious howl toward the portal.
They stared at each other in silence, Ranya blinking her undamaged eye, cringing at the sympathetic disgust in Aquila's gaze. “None of it matters now…” she muttered, shaking her head. “You're right. I am. Irreparably. Damaged!”
Ranya pulled her arm back, snapping it forward in a blur of filthy silk and sending her knife sailing at Asha. Her screech echoed off the stone hall as Aquila jumped sideways, catching the blade in mid-air. It sliced into his palm.
Aquila's heart came to a sickening halt in his throat.
Ranya grinned wickedly at the edge of the portal. Within touching distance of Asha.
No. Please…!
Ranya looked at her brother, and for the smallest fraction of a second the innocent girl she might have been reflected across her expression like sunlight on steel, a shimmering ghost against her defaced and shattered life. Aquila caught his breath.
The next instant Ranya po
inted a blood-caked hand at Asha with a cackle, and he thought he'd imagined it. Asha didn't move, and Aquila didn't dare take his eyes off the Witch.
Ranya leveled her gaze at him and abruptly stopped laughing. Lifting one arm, she threw something to him. Aquila raised one bloody hand and caught it, somehow knowing it wasn't a weapon.
Fixing him with the flash of a mournful smile, Ranya shrugged, securing her spear to her back.
“Darkness always wins in the end, brother. You'll do well to remember that. Light burns only until it burns out. And those who remain, those who survive, we crave the darkness. We thrive on the turmoil and pain that it sows. And we rule.”
Ranya's feet moved to the portal that, though no more Underworlders were coming through, was obviously not fully closed.
Aquila realized, inexplicably and too late, that he wanted to stop her. He rushed forward with a strangled cry as his sister turned away, tipping slowly over the roiling black, falling sideways. And in a flutter of silk, Ranya disappeared into the portal without a sound, into the unknown darkness of the lowest Underworld.
Aquila opened his hand and looked down at a blood-smeared golden nail-guard.
Looking around, he saw that with Ranya's absence, Afzal and BapuJi were thawing.
And the Raurava demon had gotten over its jet lag.
Chapter 58
“On three, Lexi!” hissed Nidhan, unhooking a holy water grenade from his belt. “One, two, three!”
The Raurava demon tried to get up, nine eyes rolling around in its multiple faces. Holy water hit it like a violent wave, and it fell back with a crash, four arms flailing like a giant, extremely ugly beetle.
But then it jumped to its feet, blinking furiously.
“Ooohkay…” Lexi said, stepping back. “Holy water seems to just piss him off. Good to know! Chili pepper grenades then?”
Nidhan nodded. “It made him fall over. That's something, right? Okay, one—”
“Three!”
Wherever the cayenne touched the demon's sulfurous skin, reeking blue smoke billowed from red bubbles the size of baseballs, and the creature looked down at himself in apparent confusion.
“That… doesn't seem to hurt… ?” Nidhan said. “Man, this—”
“Holy water—now!”
The Raurava demon fell to its knees with a crash, growling something furiously.
It saw Lexi and Nidhan.
“Again, Nidhan!” Lexi screamed, pitching all of her grenades at the creature. “Give him everything!”
The demon lay back heavily, one repulsive face hitting the stone in what looked like a very uncomfortable position, making increasingly horrible noises.
Nidhan and Lexi looked at each other, panting.
“Well, he's not dead,” Nidhan said.
“Nope.” Lexi smiled. “But I think we just learned some new curse words.”
The creature moved slowly to sit up again, shaking its horrific head.
Her khanda gleamed in the firelight, and Lexi smiled and wiggled her eyebrows. “No laundry duty for life for whoever takes this fucker down.”
“No way.” Nidhan shook his head. “I refuse to participate in laundry-duty-related bets.”
“What then?”
Nidhan moved closer to her. “I'm sure I'll be able to think of something in the unlikely event we don't die gruesome, horrible deaths,” he said, twirling his talwar, and Lexi blushed, stepping back.
She pointed a diamond tipped-dagger at him. “Do not mess with my raging hormones at a time like this!”
He tapped her dagger aside with his sword, moving closer. “We could die any second, and you're saying all you feel for me is raging hormones?”
Lexi's eyes widened with panic as she looked up at him, and Nidhan burst into laughter, turning away from her. “I swear to God, Lexi…”
Screaming in frustration, Lexi flung her knife at the creature, and it stuck into the forehead that faced them. Black liquid oozed into its central eye. One giant, taloned hand reached up, yanking at the blade as the demon lumbered to its feet, towering over them. Nidhan and Lexi looked up to see the wound heal within seconds as the dagger clattered to the floor.
“Oh, shit,” Nidhan said.
“At least it pierced his skin.” Lexi shrugged. “Could have been worse.”
Nidhan gazed at her in awe, his eyes filling with sudden tears. “Look, Lexi… I…”
Lexi shoved Nidhan behind the nearest pillar and glared up at him with a fierceness that made him blink. “Don't you dare make a death speech at me!” She searched the darkness. “We're gonna live, do you understand me? We're gonna survive this. And I… goddamn it, you know that I…” Lexi rolled her eyes and took a deep breath. “It's the unconquerable soul of man, not the weapon he uses, that insures victory.”
“Insures victory? Says who?”
“A great warrior, okay?”
“It was General Patton again, wasn't it?”
Lexi waved a hand. “Look, diamond-tipped weapons cut this thing. So we just find out exactly where to cut, and the damn thing will die! Easy-peasy!”
Nidhan gazed down at Lexi, a slow smile spreading across his face. He leaned toward her, grinning. “On three then?”
Lexi turned to peer around the pillar and cursed. “The son of a diseased demon whore's seen Asha!”
They sprinted across the room behind the creature as it lumbered toward Asha, and, without breaking stride, Nidhan sliced at the back of the demon's legs in a blur of swords, while Lexi leapt to hack into its side where its kidneys would be. Sparks flew along its purple iridescent scales, and Lexi dropped to a crouch as talons swiped over her, then straightened to stab up into the creature's underarm.
Nidhan stowed his swords and fell back in one fluid movement, throwing a knife into one of the demon's nine eyes, where it buried itself to the hilt. He rolled to his feet, talwar back in his hands, just as the monster turned its full attention to them, ripping the knife out of its eye with a gravelly roar.
“Yeah!” Lexi cheered. “That got his attention! And it's not healing, look!”
“One down, eight to go.” Nidhan scrambled for his fallen knife, then rolled across the floor to where the dagger Lexi had thrown at its forehead lay glinting against a pillar.
The Raurava demon lunged for Lexi, its movements clumsy, swiping one clawed hand at her, and she ran backwards, throwing a second knife at another eye. She spun to stand behind a pillar as the monster screamed, pulling at the blade.
“Lexi!” Nidhan called, from behind the neighboring pillar. “BapuJi's thawing!”
Lexi started to answer him, but the demon's yellow arm reached around the pillar and snatched her into the air. Its fanged mouth widening between ropes of shining mucus.
“No!” Nidhan roared, rushing forward.
And there was Aquila, sprinting across the room, revolvers shooting with echoing pops at the monster's head.
Lexi yelled, slashing blindly at the demon's hand with her sword as its acid claws cut through her pants, raking along her leg.
And then the demon dropped her.
Lexi hit the stone with dizzying impact, and in an instant, Nidhan's massive arms were wrapped around her, lifting her onto his lap.
“Lexi!” he sobbed, cradling her head. “Oh, God… please don't be dead…”
Lexi kept her eyes closed for a moment longer than was strictly necessary. “I'm okay.” She struggled to sit up, gasping. “Well, not exactly dead, anyway…”
They watched as Aquila dove with easy grace, staying out of the demon's reach, throwing knives at its eyes with effortless accuracy.
And then they saw that the demon's eyes were healing, growing back an angry red.
“Oh crap,” they said in unison.
The Raurava demon started spitting fire at Aquila, singeing his jacket as he spun away.
Shutting out the pain as she stood, Lexi said, “If we could cut its head off, maybe…”
“That is one big fucking if, Lexi! How t
he hell—”
Lexi grabbed his hand. “You and Aquila get it to lean over, right? I'll jump on its… back? I guess it doesn't really have a back. Just, like, two ugly, boney, chest-back things. Eww.” Lexi looked at the demon, wrinkling her nose. “Anyway, I'll hack its ugly head off!”
“Jump? Look at your leg, Lexi. All right! Fine!” Nidhan looked at the ceiling in exasperation. “We'll try to cut two arms off, probably temporarily, get it to lean the other way, and maybe you'll be able to… its neck is pretty damn thick. Shit, it's worth a try.” Nidhan nodded grimly and disappeared into the darkness, circling to Aquila.
Lexi watched Aquila throw three more knives at the creature's eyes, jumping and twisting out of its reach before he shifted, joining Nidhan outside the lit circle a moment later.
Asha still stood with her arms raised, her eyes glowing brighter than Lexi had ever seen them, even brighter than when she'd almost killed the group of Vampires. And Lexi saw the portal was changing, the pitch black turning to blue and purple flame.
Nidhan and Aquila burst from the darkness.
Ducking under the creature's gaze, Nidhan hacked at the top of its hooves in a blur of swords, sparks flying, singeing his clothes, his dumala. The Raurava leaned forward with a bellow of rage, and Aquila leapt into the air with easy grace, slicing his blade clean through one of its massive arms. The monster let out a deafening howl, grabbing for Aquila with its undamaged front-facing arm. Turning, Aquila flew out of its reach, only to come diving back down, severing the second arm between elbow and shoulder before he landed on the stone, revolver raised.
The demon spun to reach for Nidhan and Aquila as dark blood gushed like fountains from the stumps of its severed arms. Both boys yelled in unison, “Now, Lexi!”
She was already sprinting across the circle. Leaping onto the bent creature, she scrambled up the cadaverous bones along its massive back. She faced three unseeing eyes, the handle of one of Aquila's knives still stuck into one. Aquila used his last holy water grenade, and the creature bucked, falling to its hands, and Lexi steadied herself on its back, feet planted against its muscled shoulder blades.
