Page 19 (1/2)
In Hell
"Shouldn&039;t we be seeing solad that we haven&039;t" Cadh on his plate; he didn&039;t care to be dealing with demons just yet, thank you very much
"But they should be all over the place If they&039;re not, then where did they go?"
Cadmus was reluctant to voice the idea that Botello had rounded them up and would soon descend in a surprise attack And for that matter where had Botello taken himself? There wasn&039;t a surfeit of cover around here; a few scraggly, thorny growths that ht loosely be described as trees was the li with some rocks
"Party," mumbled Terrin behind hionna party"
"What do you mean?"
"Wha&039;dya think? Get me to th&039; dam&039; river An&039; tell Godzilla boy t&039; stop buht-oh!" he said, and began to trot
In Limbo
"Hey!" I said "Check it out! My sword and the crystal!" I darted to one side and snagged theround, none the worse for wear, not even scratched
Anton kept walking "I&039;d wondered whose those were," he said His eyes were still shut "They skittered toward ht at o"
Minutes? So all that action with the succubae andnap had been a time-compressed dream? No way, no way I had to have been in a space opera-style tis It had happened, and I alking funny to prove it "Why didn&039;t you pick them up?"
"They weren&039;t mine Besides, I sensed the sword had soood for me to handle Disrupts one&039;s Talent, you know I&039;ic now as it is Crystals are even trickier Never knohat energies are stored in the pesky things Best to leave theoing to be a proble on to thefine"
I looked over the crystal for any sign of light It had a norht now "Myhr to Enterprise, come in Time to bea voice popped into ain," said Anton
"I told Terrin it needed new batteries" I shoved it in a pocket and got a solid grip on the sword Didn&039;t knohat good it&039;d do
"Terrin&039;s your wizard friend?"
"Yeah He was anchoring my astral body The line snapped, and I don&039;t knohy I think Botello ht have interrupted the circle"
"Yes, that would explain sos I&039;ve seen and sensed Is Terrin a short fellohite hair?"
Jeez, I alking with Anton-Wan Kenobi "Last tiic drain did stuff to hilimpse or two He&039;s on this Side Over in the Hell plane"
I snorted "That&039;s practically his ho a party"
"Don&039;t think so Caduts made a swoop "He&039;s not dead, is he?"
"No, Fili to him, but he doesn&039;t look at all well"
"She&039;s here, too? Who else?"
Anton shook his head "Sorry Just brief pictures of them But we must move more quickly"
So we picked up the pace "How is it you can see like that?"
"It&039;sout to be useful here In the Reality plane the visions cos The Powers That Be have to lie or it throws off the balance They sent s, but no explanations Best they could do, I fear"
He was sounding like Terrin, butaround the Reality plane like that, do you? With your eyes shut?"
"Oh, certainly not The rules are a tad different on this side I&039;ve been shown and told soood"
"Like what?"
"Hard to explain"
"Can you tell me about the Hell-river?"
"It started with Botello"
"He invented it?"
"Goodness, no, but hisof ainto the Reality plane when the veils are thinnest, at night The Overlords in the Hell plane were naturally upset at first, then saw it as a means to escape"
"Into the Reality plane?"
"Into any plane You&039;ve seen their place - would you want to spend eternity there?"
Good point "Can&039;t these Powers keep them in?"
"That&039;s what the Hell-river&039;s for, serves as a boundary between the planes It holds a store of y, which is what confines the deic themselves, but are very familiar with it, like a horse with a bridle They&039;re always eager totheir ends while pretending themselves to serve He has ambition, a weakness they exploited, but he has always been a trifle short on iination Tends to dismiss the obvious"
"Which was?"
"That he just wasn&039;t up to the task Thought hied to do is botch up the balance One living being thrown into Hell the wrong way - which is what happened with Botello - is what upset things It ht him no end of attention The Powers are very specific about protocol The only way you are supposed to get into Hell is through the proper channels You have to die, go through a bit of processing with the Powers, and if you&039;re really deserving punishht line-breaking could be taken so seriously? On the other hand, as that eager to break into Hell? "Why didn&039;t the Powers just get him out?"
"They didn&039;t knoas there The Inner Overlords were hiding hi the river Nor who tries to cross it is brought right back again But suddenly the Hell-river vanished from Hell, an unthinkable disaster, and any unshielded Talents in the Reality plane unfortunate enough to be in its path were sucked in It has quite a store of s, too"
"They all died?"
"Not as such"
"Bodily displaced?"
"Close enough Only there were no bodies left behind The holes made when they vanished just knitted up, meencyTalents are i"
"Would that leave the astral plane e at the blue li, isn&039;t it? The Powers shut everything down so they could better spot any deh"
No wonder those succubae had been so lonely
"Now the river flows nightly in the Reality plane So far, beings in the river when it vanishes from Hell are left behind when it shifts course, but that&039;s about to change Severalsouls have been pulled into Hell - with their bodies - and that has created a link to the Reality plane Very shortly the Hell-river is going to shift course and be flowing in both directions at once Then the demons will be able to escape Well, it&039;s just not the done thing"
"No, of course not," I said faintly
"So we&039;re going to find Botello, get ain"
"What about the overlords?" Who and whatever they were "What about the demons?"
"I&039;m sure you can take care of them"
It was news to me "Huh?"
"Your sword - "
"Is borrowed! I&039;hter I didn&039;t do too well on that side of the Gate One of those deave it a paper cut, but nothing that would stop it That thing was huge" I anticipated that overlords were even bigger and e?"
"Like a bulldozer"
"What&039;s that?"
"Okay, like a s With arms and teeth"
He smiled "When it&039;s time I&039;m sure you&039;ll be up to the task"
"Wish I had your confidence about it"
"You will"
"Hah?"
"Re can make it occur"
"Really?" News to s already here, or rather there When we get to the Gate you&039;ll see The de pleasant They&039;re not very s, but not sed "He ht not have known You two aren&039;t from around here are you?"
"You could say that and then soe fro me Seemed to know a lot more than he should I wanted to find out just how much, but had to focus on the current situation "How do I do this?"
"Just think of what you want, but it has to be based in this side You won&039;t materialize a cup of tea, because that&039;s not here"
"Work hat&039;s at hand?"
"Yes"
"Why haven&039;t you done any of that to get out?"
"Because I&039; is a bit more complex That&039;s why Botello couldn&039;t escape Well, here&039;s the Gate Gird up"
On the Other Side of the Gate
"Looks like Botello&039;s run afoul of the chaps here," said Cadmus
Behind the questionable cover of a tree, he and Fili on close to the great Gate A hair-raising and stoly creatures - deathered there, the lot of them focused on the interplay between one of their own and Botello He was presently engulfed in the grasp of that creature, his legs dangling so a lot of fast talking
"He does see on his back next to her and apparently asleep or passed out, offered no comment They were only yards from the empty riverbed, but the space in betas croith deoodly distance, which was not practical at the moment
"Hope they don&039;t hurt him For Lord Anton&039;s sake," she added
"It doesn&039;t look good They seeers would shift the the way to the gully
As though reading hisa path
"I say, that&039;s luck Let&039;s go while we can Keep low and quiet" He hoisted Terrin over his shoulder, and they hurried across the open ground
Botello struggled hard to breathe norht Maybe he should have taken his chances and stayed close to Fili short felloasn&039;t strong enough to swat flies Fili or at least as an indication of Botello&039;s intent to honor his agreeht sacrifices to you," he wheezed "They are back near where you found me"
"The Gate," said the overlord "Open it"
"I can&039;t without theht buy hi back the river"
"Freelike this"
"You will escape"
"How can I? I don&039;t kno I got free before"
"Lie," stated the deh him Not the merely unco his every nerve His cry rose and extended into a prolonged screa to struggle away froony, then it left hi, he saw his flesh was unseared If that had been an illusion of pain ould it be like if they began torturing him in earnest?
Best not to find out
"No lies," the deht" He was too weary and frightened to think Just agree and hope to find an opportunity toand there it was
Staring down past the de their way toward the riverbed Filima and the others How had Cadmus recovered from a broken neck? No ht sacrifices"
Almost as one, the demons turned to look
"That&039;s torn it," said Caded Filima ahead of him She sprinted like a deer He strove to keep up and was only a pace behind when she scrabbled down the edge of the bank into the wide, shallow gully
"Nohat?" she asked, still
"Go toward the Gate"
"They&039;ll cut in front of us"
"Then cross to the other side I don&039;t see any of them there"
"Bad idea," mumbled Terrin unexpectedly
"Then what do we do?" Cad heavy&039;s about to break"
"What&039;s broken?" Cadeting, wanting to go after Filiate "Just watch"
Cadmus started to object, then speech left hiasp of surprise She scarabbed his arm That was nice
Where Terrin&039;s body touched, where their feet touched, thick black fog began to ooze forth froround
"Party time!" crowed Terrin
Anton and I crouched under the Gate, peering out at the riverbed The black fog was co up around Terrin, Cade was eloquent; except for Terrin, who just lay there, they were clearly alarood or bad?" I asked
"Yes," he said "Absolutely"
Well, what did I expect from a man with his eyes closed all the tiet ht him
"Have you noticed there&039;s a demon convention out there?"
"I believe they&039;ll be rather too busy for the next few e of it"
He s crowd I followed and profoundly wished us both invisible No way to tell if it worked or not, but the monsters did seem to have their attention focused downriver, even the one who had Botello in its hand Claw Whatever
I kept close to Anton,None of the hi
"I told you," said Botello "Now release rowl, but it set him down The instant he was clear he started toward the Gate