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MaTTHEW&039;S FIRST REaLIZaTION of his descent to Hell was the odor
It was as strong as demon&039;s sweat and twice as nasty It entered his nostrils like burning irons, penetrated to the back of his throat, and he was suddenly aware that he was being wracked by a fit of coughing though he had not heard it begin
When the s ended, he tried to open his eyes The lids were heavy, as if weighted by the coins due Charon for his ferry trip across the Styx He couldn&039;t open the voice thattheir scorched fate The language sounded near Latin, but Latin was God&039;s language This must be Greek, which was more suitably earthy
a few eable of the tor, white-hot pain had begun to throb at his left shoulder and down the ar complaint There was a pain at his forehead too, but that was ain he tried to open his eyes and again he failed
Neither could he ht he was atte to move, but he couldn&039;t be sure
There was soworse by the second, that he decided it was y, as surely he would need it when he walked through the bri of a fire - of course, a fire! - and felt an oppressive, terrible heat as if he were being roasted over an inferno
But now a new feeling began to coer It threatened to burst into full-flaht at home here
He had considered himself a Christian and had tried his very best to follow the Godly path To find himself cast into Hell like this, with no court to hear his case, was a da fury what it was he&039;d done that had doos on the Manhattan harbori Flung a horse-apple at the back of a merchant&039;s head, and stolen a few coins from the dirty pocket of a capsized drunki Or had it beeninto Seth Hazelton&039;s barn and later cutting the ht be it Well, he would be here to greet that lover of mares when Hazelton arrived, and by that time Matthew hoped to have built up some seniority in this den of lawyers
The pain was now excruciating, and Matthew clenched his teeth but he felt the cry rising up frooing to have to scream, and ould the company of diaboliques then think of bis fortitudei
His mouth opened, and he let loose not a screah to further drain hi had ceased
a hand - so rough-fleshed it ht have been covered with treebark - touched his face, the fingers starting at his chin and sliding up his right cheek The singsong uage What felt like a thuht eye, and endeavored to push the lid up
Matthew had had enough of this blindness He gave a soft gasp at the effort it involved, but he forced his eyes open of his own accord
Iht and drifting sreeted hi-chinned brown face with small black eyes, its flesh wrinkled and weathered like ancient wood Blue whorls decorated the gaunt cheeks, and a third eye - daubed bright yellow as the sun - was painted in the center of the forehead The earlobes were pierced with hooks froled acorns and snail shells The head was bald save for a topknot of long gray hair that grew froreen leaves and the bones of small animals
To make Matthew&039;s induction to Hell even worse, the deht have served as a sawblade "ayo pokapa, " the creature said, nodding Or at least that was the sound Matthew heard "ayo pokapa, " the deain, and lifted to its lips half of a broken clay dish in which so With a quick inhalation, the creature pulled smoke into its mouth and then blew the noxious fumes- - that nasty demon&039;s-sweat odor - into Matthew&039;s nostrils
Matthew attempted to turn his head aside, and that hen he realized his skull was bound in so the san to murmur "Saba yante napha te" It slowly rocked back and forth, eyes half-closed The light froh the dense pall of smoke that drifted above Matthew What sounded like a pineknot burst, and then there ca noise like a roo di-abolist The acrid woodsmoke seemed to thicken, and Matthew feared that the little breath he could grasp would soon be poisoned "Yante te napha te, saba yante napha te, " went the repeated, rising and falling voice again the ritual with the broken dish and the inhalation was repeated, and again the smoke - damn Hell, if there was such a powerful stink to be smelled for eternity! - was blown up Matthew&039;s nostrils
He couldn&039;t move, and assumed that not only his head was bound down but also both wrists and ankles He wished to be ato his eyes
"ai!" the demon said, and patted his cheek "Mouk takani soba se ha ha" Then it was back to the steady , and another blast of shts, Mattheas feeling no pain The cogwheels that usually regulated the order of hismotion by the de froone past in an eyeblink Matthew felt as if he were floating in a red-flah he could of course sense the hard pallet at his back
and then Matthe hevery strange about the piece of broken dish fro
It hite and on it was a decoration of small red hearts
Yes, he was insane now absolutely insane, and ready for Hell&039;s Bedlahan had thrown into the fount, only then it had been whole and contained a sweet yam pie
"Yante te napha te, " the deain Losing hi dark Reality - such as it was in the Land of Chaos - disappeared in bits and pieces, as if the darkness were a living thing that hungered first for sound, then light, and then smell
If it was possible to die a death in the country of the dead, then that was Matthew&039;s acco, and there was very little peace in it The pain grew again, and again ebbed He opened his eyes, saw ures or shadows, and closed theht he slept, or died, or suffered night while the ratcatcher rode the bear&039;s back and thrust at hi suain dry as a winter leaf
The s demon returned, to continue its tortures Matthew once more saw that the broken dish hite, with small red hearts He dared to speak to the creature, in a feeble and fearful voice, "Who are youi" The murmured chant went on
"What are youi" Matthew asked But no ansas given
He slept and waked, slept and waked Ti He was tended to by twoblack hair similarly adorned by leaves and bones They lifted the rasses, moss, feathers, and such that covered his nakedness, cleaned hiray paste-like food that tasted strongly of fish, and put a wooden ladle of water to his lips
Fire and s chanting Yes, this was surely Hell, Matthew thought
and then came thebeside him in this realm of flames and fumes "Rachel!" he whispered "You tooi Oh er to her lips Though dead, her eyes were as bright as gold coins Her hair cascaded in ebony waves about her shoulders, and Mattheould have been lying if he&039;d said the infernal light didn&039;t reen shift decorated around the neck with intricate blue beadwork He stared at the pulse that beat in the hollow of her throat, and saw listen on her cheeks and forehead
It must be said, these demons did excellent work at the illusion of life
He tried to angle his face toward her, but still his head was confined as were his ars "Rachel I&039;m sorry, " he whispered "You shouldn&039;t be here Your tier went to his lips, to bid hiiveyou to such a bad endi" Smoke drifted between them, and soave hi down, she pressed her lips to his own The kiss lingered, and became needful
His body - the illusion of a body, after all - reacted to this kiss as it would have done in the earthly sphere Which didn&039;t surprise Matthew, for it was a well-known fact Heaven would be full of angelic lutes and Hell full of flesh flutes In that particular regard, perhaps it was not such a disagreeable place
Rachel pulled back Her face remained within his field of vision, her lips da, and the fire shadows licked her cheek
She reached back and undid soarround
Her hands returned, lifting the woven mat from Matthew&039;s body Then she stepped up onto what ently eased her naked body down against his own, after which she pulled the grass
He wanted to ask her if she knehat she was doing He wanted to ask her if this was love, or passion, or if she looked at him and saw Daniel&039;s face
But he didn&039;t Instead, he surrendered to the moment; to be more accurate, the moing of his own, and her body pressed against his with undeniable urgency
as they kissed, Rachel&039;s hand found the scrivener&039;s readied instru of her thighs, she eased hi that relaxed to allow entry and then rasped once he was sheathed deep
Mattheas unable to an a leisurely, circular roan left Matthew&039;s mouth at the incredible, otherworldly sensation, and Rachel echoed it with her own They kissed as if eager to e one into the other as the woodsmoke swirled about theht and held and Rachel&039;s hips moved up and then down to push him still deeper, Matthew cried out with a pleasure that was verging on pain Even this central act, he thought in his state of sweating rapture, was a cooperation of God and Devil
Then he just stopped thinking and allowed nature to rule
Rachel&039;s ainst his ear, her pine-scented hair in his face She was breathing quickly and harshly His heartbeat slaave twoup and her eyes squeezed tightly shut She shivered and her , softof pleasure did translate into a white flashing pain for Matthew, a fierce jolt that rippled from the top of his head down his spine In the midst of this riot of sensations, he are of his burst into Rachel&039;s clinging huriain, so ardently as if she wished to capture that cry and keep it forever like a golden locket in the secret center of her soul
With a strengthless sigh, Rachel settled against him yet supported herself on her elbows and knees so as not to rest all her weight He was still inside her, and still fire left hi, but his flauished and obviously neither had Rachel&039;s, for she looked hiht and her hair daan to ain
If this was indeed Hell, Matthew thought, no wonder everyone was in such a fever to make their reservations
The second tih even more intense than the first Matthew could only lie and vainly attempt to match Rachel&039;s motions Even if his movements had been totally free, a weakness that affected every th
Finally, she pressed down on hi as heconalled the iht to reach
Then, in the et afterues, Matthe the coach one their distance
Presently, he closed his eyes and sluain When he opened them - who kne much later - the de a white stone to crush up a foul-looking brown mixture of seeds, berries, and fetid whatnot - and the whatnot was the worst of it - in a srunt-and-whistle and pushed some of the stuff toward Matthew&039;s ht Now the true tor forced upon hi excrement and smelled like vomit Matthew cla and whistling in obvious irritation, but Matthew steadfastly refused to accept it