Into Hell (The Road to Hell Series, Book 4)

by Brenda K. Davies

  “What are the boats made from?” I asked.

  “Calamut trees,” Kobal answered.

  I looked up at where he stood before me. “The calamut trees allowed themselves to be cut down?”

  I couldn’t picture those colossal trees—with their sweeping limbs and ability to create walls with their branches—allowing anyone near them with an ax. I’d watched those branches pierce an ogre straight through before dragging him away. I preferred not to think about what they would do to someone who tried to chop one of them down.

  “That would never happen,” Magnus said.

  “The wood was harvested after the calamut died,” Kobal said. “It doesn’t happen very often, but occasionally one of them does die or is killed.”

  “I see,” I replied and ran my hand over the seat before rising.

  Bracing my legs apart, I easily maintained my balance on the shifting vessel. A feeling of rightness stole through me at being surrounded by water again. I hadn’t spent much time on boats back home, but I’d spent enough time near the ocean to know its ebbs and flows well. The Asharún may not be the beautiful, rolling blue sea I loved so much, but the sway of its currents called to me.

  The boat glided around a corner, and the jagged walls closed in on us. Kobal bent his head to avoid being stabbed by the rocks. The scent of brimstone and fire grew heavier on the air.

  A wraith rose out of the water only a few feet away. Its human-looking hands clawed at the air before its elongated jaw and sightless eyes broke the surface. Seeing the human qualities on the deformed figure was more disturbing to me than witnessing them when they were entirely the twisted monstrosities they became.

  I tried not to recall the image of my father as a wraith, but watching the spirit being pulled under the water again brought forth the memory of my father being sucked into the Fires of Creation and destroyed.

  To keep myself centered in the here and now, I focused on the boat behind us. The hellhounds all sat within it, their amber eyes bright in the gloom.

  Something bumped against the side of the boat with more force than the wraiths had exhibited so far. The bow went slightly off course before Carion corrected it.

  “What was that?” I whispered.

  “Probably a tahanusi,” Bale replied and pushed a strand of fiery red hair over her shoulder. Her skin held a red hue to it and her eyes were a penetrating lime-green color. Bale was one of Kobal’s second-in-command; the other one was Corson. She was one of the most stunning women I’d ever seen with her lethal curves and flawless features, but she was just as ruthless as Kobal and Corson.

  “What is a tahanusi?” Hawk asked.

  “A sea monster,” Magnus replied as casually as if he’d revealed they were starfish.

  “A what now?” Hawk reached for one of his guns, but he no longer wore his weapon belt. Our human weapons had been lost during the battle with Lucifer.

  Magnus’s mouth quirked in amusement when Hawk glanced between him, the Asharún, and back again. The realization we shared this water with something more than the wraiths made the hair on my arms rise. I scrutinized the water, trying to pierce through its murky depths to see what lay beneath, but the river refused to yield its secrets.

  “The tahanusis won’t bother us,” Kobal said and rested a hand on my shoulder.

  “But they’re sea monsters?” I asked, unable to tear my eyes away from the water.

  “They’re Hell creatures who also feed on wraiths,” Kobal replied. “They rarely bother the boats.”

  “You throwing that word rarely out there isn’t as reassuring as you think it is,” Hawk said.

  Something else hit the side of the boat, causing it to veer off course again. I bit back a gasp as I strained to see the creature beneath us. Not being able to see them made knowing they were there so much worse.

  “They occasionally bump against the boats by accident, that’s all,” Bale said.

  From fifteen feet away, a rounded back broke the surface of the water. It rose higher as it slid through the water like a serpent. The water streaming over the creature caused its scales to glisten like black diamonds before it finally vanished again.

  Then, a tail lashed out of the water and flicked out behind the creature. I couldn’t stop my stomach from turning when I realized the tip of the tail resembled a rattlesnake’s. With a shake, the creature threw off drops of water, and its tail created a high-pitched rattle that reverberated like a gunshot over the walls of our close confines.

  Beside me, Kobal stiffened. Magnus slowly rose to his feet. I glanced between the two of them as the gray tail slid beneath the surface of the water. Only a small ripple indicated where it had been. Carion planted his staff in the water and the boat halted. The vessel behind us stopped a few feet away. The foot-long talons in the back of Corson’s hands extended. The hounds all rose to their feet as a hush descended.

  In the distance, another rattle echoed through the cavern, drawing my attention to the winding tunnel we’d already traversed. The curves in the rocks made it impossible to see more than twenty feet ahead or behind us. Kobal and the others all turned to face the direction we had come from.

  Another rattle sounded from somewhere ahead of us. The strength of it vibrated off the walls and created ripples across the surface of the water. As the boat swayed, Kobal’s hand tightened on my shoulder and he drew me closer to him. His black fingernails lengthened into three-inch claws that could eviscerate someone.

  My heart pounded out a drumbeat against my ribs. “Kobal—”

  I didn’t get a chance to finish my question before he spun toward me. He wrapped his arms around me seconds before something launched itself out of the water. Kobal jerked against me, and we were both shoved roughly forward. The boat listed precariously to the side, nearly tipping over. Leaning back, Kobal planted his foot on the other side of the boat and pushed it down before we were all dumped into the water.

  “Are you okay?” I demanded of him. I tried to twist in his arms to see what was going on when the coppery scent of blood filled my nostrils. His blood.

  Fury at anything injuring him caused fire to dance across my fingertips, and Kobal’s flames emerged to circle his wrists. The boat rocked as the weight within it shifted, but I still couldn’t see around Kobal as he kept his body enfolded protectively over mine.

  “Corson!” Kobal barked.

  “It went down before we could get it,” Corson replied.

  “Get us to shore, Carion, now!” Kobal commanded.

  “Are you okay?” I demanded again.

  “I’m fine, Mah Kush-la, do not worry. What was it?” he asked the others.

  “Lower-level demon,” Bale replied.

  “In the Asharún?” Magnus asked, his tone disbelieving.

  “They know the World Walker is here,” Lix said.

  Another loud rattle sounded from somewhere beyond the cavern. Kobal lifted me up and spun me around as a demon came out of the water behind us. More fire flared around Kobal and lashed out of his back in a protective wave. The demon screamed, and Kobal’s low growl resonated in my ear. Moving to the side, I twisted away from him enough to see the scorched demon falling into the water as another creature loomed out of it.

  “Kobal!” I shouted at the same time he turned and launched a punch.

  The creature’s nose flattened and its cheek caved in from the force of the blow. Blood oozed from its mouth before it spit out its teeth. I recognized it as a lower-level demon because of its animalistic features seconds before Kobal clutched its head and snapped it to the side.

  The demon’s body went limp, but its eyes still rolled in its head. Kobal continued to twist its head to the side until he wrenched it from the demon’s shoulders. Yellow blood spilled forth to mix with the red water.

  Something crashed against the side of the boat, spinning it sideways in the water. I staggered back, my arms pinwheeling to steady my balance. Righting myself, I placed my foot against the wood behind me to brace myse
lf as a splash sounded.

  Something hit the boat with enough force that the wood shuddered and beads of water formed around the edges of the boards. I edged my boots away as the red water slid toward them.

  Corson plunged his talons straight through the neck of another demon while Lix and the other skelleins eagerly hacked at them with their swords. Kobal lashed out at another one when it erupted from the water. Fire danced over my fingers as I searched for another threat and positioned myself so that my back was against Kobal’s. Kneeling at the side of the boat, Magnus and Hawk waved their arms as they shouted something I couldn’t understand.

  It took me a second to spot Bale swimming through the water toward us. I realized she’d created the splash I’d heard. Magnus and Hawk grabbed her arms when she made it to the boat and hauled her over the side. Water dripped from Bale as she sat for a second before leaping to her feet with a murderous gleam in her eyes.

  “Destroy them all,” Carion hissed.

  My eyes widened when I realized his hood had fallen back to reveal his features. Lix had been completely right, the ferryman was ugly and not in the disconcerting, ‘I’m not used to seeing something that looks like this’ kind of way, but in a flat out, ‘I’m going to have nightmares about him for the rest of my life’ kind of way.

  His gray skin flaked off and fell around him as he lifted the staff and slid it back into the water with far more speed than he had before. There were no lips to his mouth, only a clear view of his yellow, pointed teeth. The white cheekbones beneath his eye sockets were visible. Two glowing red lights burned out of his head from where his eyes should have been. However, none of that was as bad as all the things wiggling beneath his crusty skin like worms burrowing through the earth.

  I finally succeeded in tearing my gaze away from him, but his face was forever seared into my memory.

  Another demon burst from the water and came over the side of the boat at Bale, Magnus, and Hawk. Against my back, Kobal’s body moved fluidly while he worked to fight off more demons with the skelleins. On the boat behind us, the hounds howled, but their vessel remained unaffected by the demons swarming us.

  Lifting my hand, I released a blast of fire into the face of a hyena-looking demon. The demon yelped and fell into the water as more of them emerged. Some fell back beneath the surface, but others caught the boat and held on as they tried to pull themselves inside.

  Drawing on the vast power Kobal emanated, I fought my growing dread as the boat rocked precariously and the shouts and grunts of fighting filled the air. Fear brought out the fire in me, but right now I needed my ability to wield life. It was a far more lethal weapon against these creatures.

  Deep blue sparks danced across my fingertips. I worked on growing the energy as a splintering sound rent the air and the boat shuddered to a stop. Expecting the boat to break in half, I glanced nervously around, but I couldn’t see any damage to it. The boat following ours came to a stop and from somewhere behind us another rattle sounded.

  “What—” I never got to finish the question as the wood beneath my feet suddenly gave way and I plummeted into the water.

  CHAPTER 4

  Kobal

  I leapt forward to grab River, but she was already gone. A snarl tore from me as my hands clenched empty air. Water surged through the gaping hole the demon had torn into the boat. They’d dared to touch her, dared to take her from me, and they’d taken her into the Asharún with the wraiths and the tahanusis.

  “Kobal!” Bale shouted as I turned and dove over the side of the boat.

  The warm water of the Asharún enveloped me when I plunged beneath its surface. Kicking hard, I dove deeper as I searched for any sign of River, but I couldn’t see my hands before me.

  The demons wouldn’t kill her—Lucifer wanted her alive—but they would take her to him. And what he would do to her…

  No. It would not happen. I’d get her back before they managed to take her from here. On my right, a spark burst through the darkness before going out. I swam toward the light. River had created that spark, but the water would extinguish her flames, and the wraiths would make it difficult, if not impossible, for her to draw on her ability to wield life.

  A tahanusi, angered that others had entered its water, brushed against my chest. Its scales scouring my flesh drew blood. I was their king, but they tolerated only the wraiths in the water with them. It was the reason I’d believed traveling the Asharún would be safer.

  I had underestimated Lucifer’s control over these lower-level demons, if he’d somehow convinced them to brave the wrath of the tahanusis to capture River. The demons must have been hiding and waiting to see if we would come this way and slipped into the water when they heard the approach of the boats.

  Another thick-skinned body abraded my flesh, and a rattle sounded through the water. If the tahanusis planned to attack me, they would have by now, but king or not, they wanted me out of their water and they were letting me know it.

  I wildly searched for any sign of River in the murky water of the damned. The demons would have brought her back to the surface by now to keep her from drowning. But then, lower-level demons weren’t known for their intelligence, and they wouldn’t require oxygen as often as she did. They may not realize she would need to breathe already.

  With a fierce kick, I propelled myself back to the surface. Bursting free of the water, I inhaled deeply and treaded water as I spun in search of her. Our boat no longer skimmed across the surface, but hung heavy in the water as Carion steered it sluggishly toward the shore. Now that River wasn’t within it, the demons had ceased their attack on it.

  From deep within the cavern, another rattle reverberated off the walls, but this time it was followed by a low wail that the tahanusis released as one. There would be no more warnings. The tahanusis would strike to kill now.

  The hounds all whimpered and moved toward the end of their boat. “Partka,” I commanded them to stay. The tahanusis would cut them down without hesitation, and they could do nothing to help in the water.

  “There, Kobal!” Corson shouted and pointed fifty feet away from me, toward the other side of the cavern.

  Hawk made a move to jump into the water, but Magnus and Bale both jerked him back as River broke free of the water. She gasped for air before turning and swimming toward the boat. I swam as fast as I could to get to her. She only made it ten feet before something jerked on her body, pulling her under again.

  Diving beneath once more, I swam for where I’d last seen her. A burst of orange came from twenty feet ahead of me, but River’s flames were extinguished by the water.

  ***

  River

  I kicked at the demon holding my ankle, but his grip didn’t ease. My hands clawed at the water in a vain attempt to stop my downward momentum. I had no idea how deep this river was, but it seemed endless as the dark, cold depths of the Asharún became all I knew. My entire life, I’d been drawn to water; now I was certain it would be the death of me as my lungs burned for air.

  It took everything I had not to open my mouth and inhale greedily. Panic growing, fire burst from my fingers only to be extinguished immediately by the water surrounding me. I tried to draw on the flow of life around me. Even if this was a place for the dead, the tahanusis still lived and thrived in this environment. Instead of life, all I felt was the chill permeating further into my bones until ice encased the marrow of them.

  The wraiths. Their presence may not have affected me much when I was on the boat, but being in the water with them was an entirely different story.

  I kicked against the hold on my ankle again, but the weakness seeping into my limbs and my lack of oxygen made it increasingly difficult to fight off the demon. I’d always been a strong swimmer and able to hold my breath longer than most, but I was being pushed to my limits right now.

  No! I will not die like this!

  The adrenaline fueling me caused another burst of fire to erupt. I almost screamed when the flame briefly illuminated th
e round, eel-like mouth full of piranha teeth coming straight at me. The soulless green eyes of a tahanusi filled my vision before darkness descended around me once more.

  My arms flailed in the water as I tried to swim backward to avoid the course I’d seen the sea monster taking. I kept waiting for that mouth to lock on me and gulp me into its body. I’d slide down that tube-like throat as smoothly as a raw oyster. I felt on the verge of hysteria when I realized it was oddly fitting that being consumed by a water creature would be my demise considering all the fish I’d eaten in my life.

  I jerked when a scaly body slid down the front of me, scraping the flesh of my collarbone as the tahanusi dove deeper into the water. I had no idea why it hadn’t eaten me, what game it was playing. Perhaps they were like boa constrictors and it intended to squeeze the life out of me before making a snack of me. My already frantic heartbeat went into overdrive at the idea of the tahanusi preparing to wrap itself around me.

  Stars danced before my eyes as lack of oxygen started to affect my brain. The ridged edges of the tahanusi’s rattle brushed against my face. After the roughness of its solid body, the softness of the rattle threw me completely.

  Unable to stop it anymore, my lips instinctively parted for breath as the demon’s grip on my ankle released. Water rushed into my throat and poured into my lungs as I tried to close my mouth, but once I’d inhaled, I couldn’t stop. My body convulsed as water expanded my lungs. I struggled to get my wits together enough to swim. I thought my feet kicked toward the surface, but then I realized they were barely moving at all and I was sinking deeper.

  Something solid slid between my legs. Before I had time to process what it was, it propelled me upward. Water flowed so fast around me that it stung my cheeks. My hands encircled my throat when another gulping breath of the Asharún filled my lungs. The stars vanished, blackness filled my vision, and I slumped weakly against the creature.