Page 17 (1/2)
In a Street Near Darmo House
Botello&039;s horse, couard, wasn&039;t as restive as that whiteto Cadmus, nor as pliant as the one stolen by the Burkus House lackey, but so hi, just balky and restive, ears flat, snorting and sta a tranquility spell on it, but decided to save his power Throwing fire had taken a bit out of hi his dear, soon-to-be-departed wife
Besides, Filiy hich he could restore himself Not a lot, but fresh, better than the thin scraps flowing around hile her Then he could go down to his Black Rooe his experih In dealing with the Otherside powers it was a good idea to bring an offering So what if she wasn&039;t a virgin? Her soul was innocent enough to make a meal for them They relished innocence since there was none in Hell The supply of souls they got was only the worst leavings sent there by the Powers No wonder the des on this side
The horse stubbornly tried to turn back, forcing him to wheel it around Bloody beast, he should offer it to them as well
The move left him confused on his direction Da to fix on anything familiar in the diue, flickering light That would be the fire by the bell tower Itall over Ru sleepy, uneasy questions A few recognized him or rather who he seemed to be
"Lord Anton! What is the , which way is Daring open
"Answer me!" He pulled hard on the reins to keep the nervous horse in hand
Several pointed "Is there a fire? What are those bells about?"
He left the in his heels and held onto the saddle poht a whiff of the sht he knehere he was now Any street going in this direction would open onto the lane that ran around the whole of his property Once inside he could find his way easily enough
Heanxiously for a break in the high wall It was hard to tell if the ae in brick color He decided it was a gate, flanked by two oddly shaped black colued things? Throwing his money around, was she? The colu hi a smart salute
He quickly recovered "Report"
"All is quiet, uard, no longer a column, darted forward to take the horse&039;s bridle It calate Yes, this was the sardens Norh the main entry, but Botello had no time for protocol It would shortly become a useless concept, anyway He felt inside theit open
"Do you wish escort, o through the secret tunnel by way of the stables or just take a side door into the house? He opted for the quickness of the latter Filima would be surprised either way First by the overduke&039;s appearance in the house, then by his true identity when he revealed it to her What a look she would have on her face; he&039;d have to be sure to stand close enough to see each nuance of her horrified realization
Unless Cadotten here ahead of hiates, other n of disturbance that he could see - which was very damned little with these eyes No matter He could deal with any trouble nohile in this skin How satisfying it was to be in control of everything And it would only get better and better
The Main Gates of Darmo House
"Shankey?"
"Yeah, Debreban?"
"Does it look like the fire is spreading?" Debreban peered down the long hill to a distant, evil glow in the middle of Rumpock
"Sure does"
"Lots of sh"
Debreban appreciated the sentiment "Maybe we could yell and send people froht it"
"I think they&039;re already on their way The bells and the Watch are doing their job of waking the city We have to stay here and do ours until Lord Botello arrives"
Debreban grunted agree He hated waiting "Shankey?"
"I&039;m still here, Debreban," came the patient reply
"What if Lord Botello doesn&039;t come in by the front way?"
In Hell
The crystal flickered in htbulb "Did you see that?"
Yeah, said Terrin Keep swinging until it steadies out
I waved it around, turning "No dice Maybe it needs fresh batteries"
There&039;s too much psychic interference for it to fix on Anton
"Where&039;s it couys really have to focus on hih it
By that I understood he was speaking to the others in his circle Was he in their heads, too? Were they in mine? Yeeps
Picture hi in front of you Remember he looks like Botello, but Anton&039;s inside the skin Hold it steady
The quartz glowed, but went out again I hter it would get Presumably It had been hit ordirections every few yards or so The vivid redtoperception The land, or whatever it was on this Side, seemed to slowly breathe Hopefully it was only an illusion; I didn&039;t need a bout of seasickness just now
I began to hear another noise besides the bitter, chihter and Terrin&039;s mental chat Bits of low sound, alar air, like a basso-fortissimo bear with a bad stomach Someti all over the place;hard to cut in and take over; I couldn&039;t stop if I wanted so I didn&039;t Strange thing, though, I wasn&039;t tired or running out of breath Astral bodies were tough, apparently That or they had other kinds of weaknesses
"I think I&039; in a circle, Terrin That rock looks familiar"
Rock? Oh, yeah, rock Yeah, that&039;s a rock Nothing else at all Don&039;t touch it, okay? You&039;re right, we&039;ve been here before I&039;, I braced, knowing better than to ask hi wave of change
Things got darker and slar alar bath to get rid of the stink If I ever got back
Then I saw thes with pointy teeth and glowing eyes and scales and attitudes I was coliness It wasn&039;t just the surface fear of a bad surprise, this one went down to ain All the cat in me, all the human in me froze, trapped in place by an abject primal panic so intense it hurt My heart thumped a few times, crawled into , but swayed
"Are those demons?" I whispered, hardly able to hear myself
Yuppers Take it easy I don&039;t think they&039;ll notice you unless you make a fuss They&039;re not too se These things were about the same size
"Terrin"
Chill out, buddy I mean it! Chill! I won&039;t say it&039;s okay, but you have to focus if you wanna leave Try to get that damn crystal to work
I felt like the proverbial cat in a roo chairs Maybe I didn&039;t have a tail, but a feeling of hideous vulnerability was all over low very faintly when I swung it in a direction off toas uncontrollable treet out of this place It was ground zero for everything I hated ht about The dehostly to me, and I could only hope I appeared the same to them They seemed too busy with various activities to pay any attention Those activities - I did not look closely - involved inflicting a wide variety of tortures on writhing forures Some of those looked human; others were too twisted out of shape to tell What had once been hard laughter had become screams The bear noises were from the demons This was more like the Alien set Terrin had mentioned, only in coer on acid having a really bad trip
I held tight to the sword and the crystal and let ain, but it was still jammed in my throat I had to s a lot to be able to talk "Terrin? The quartz is getting heavier Not ht"
Hecloser Hurry!
Did that The de One of the eyes going narroith awareness Oh, shit I sprinted, hoping for conceal to perceive my presence
"My cover&039;s blown Can you put me back in the candy hell?"
No
No ti The crystal put on a few h the otherwise flat landscape was a wide, deep gully, right acrossI couldn&039;t handle, but if I went down into it the demons would really notice me in its uncluttered eood reason why it was so bare If natives avoided a place it was usually because so nasty was already in residence It had to be erly worked ?
I explained my reasons; Terrin subsided For a moment
Y&039;know? It looks like a dry riverbed
"For the Hell-river?"
What are the odds?
In this place, considerably better thana lottery jackpot I followed the bank until a wall e wall, twice the size of the one they used to keep King Kong in his yard The gully ran right under a massive-beyond-massive Gate I couldn&039;t see what lay past it
"I think I have to go there Will it be safe?"
How the hell should I know?
"I thought you&039;d been here before!"
Yeah, but not this spot I party in better areas You&039;re in the slums
Slums? Hell had slums? It uttural, slow-motion, bearlike voice, not friendly, and much too close
Oi vey, it was a demon More teeth than Bruce the shark and his whole faht atthe air vibrate
Yeah, right I scaap under the Gate
This got lots of attention Dozens of de up a major earthquake
It&039;s okay! They won&039;t touch you so long as you have the sword!
"Do they know that?!?"
Terrin didn&039;t reply right away; I ran faster The gap yawned, but wasn&039;t as tall as I&039;d thought I&039;d have to duck to get under it No problem
"Noot alllooowed," said the deully Maybe it couldn&039;t run, but being able to cover ground in sweeping five-yard strides it had enough speed to match my efforts So this was how Jack felt when he was up the beanstalk loping through limpse, there was no need to look back; I could hear the deround rippled with each step it took Red gravel shook froully like stony rain
Boom BOOM BOOM
Like it was home plate, I ray oblivion, sla blindly forward, I sensed a low, confined space The deht on top of me I rolled farther to escape its reach and lashed out with the sword It connected, scraping against a giving surface The next sound - which I assu - made nails on a chalkboard seem sweet as Mozart Man, that cold iron stuff really did the job When I pulled the blade back it had so rubber and smelled even worse