BURN IN HADES (41 page)

He slid wooden beams aside and paced down the corridor, passing faded drawings on the walls. Doors hung off kilter, clinging to their hinges. The floor creaked with most of his steps and spit dust onto his ankles.

Finally, he found a suitable room to rest his head. Through the hole in the wall, he could see the soldiers marching below and the flashes of war a few miles away in the heart of Naraka. His room stood as a good lookout point. On the opposite side of the room from the hole sat a tub full of real water, not that putrid stuff or the bizarre liquids usually found in rivers all over the underworld.

He dipped his finger in the water. It was still warm. Black lava bubbled underneath the tub and was cooling. Women’s clothing and perfumes lay near the bath on a shelf.

It’d be a shame to let it all go to waste. In honor of the soul who had somehow found enough real water to fill a bath and had worked so hard to get lava under the tub, Cross vowed to enjoy the very first bath he had in several years.

He shut the door and poured the soaps and perfumes in the water, maybe too much. He was going to smell a little prissy, but he didn’t care. He stripped down and hopped into the pleasant water. He soaked and sang to himself. He played with the bubbles, squeezing them into the air, blowing them across the room.

A creak in the wood gave him pause. A squal burst through the door and snarled in the doorway. It only had one arm.

He had assumed that miserable soul would have burned to Nothing by now after drinking the poisoned calabash juices. Why did it and the Raven survive? Bolon-Hunahpu might’ve been telling the truth. The calabash may not have been poison at all. If that were true, then what burned those spirits who claimed that a talking tree made them sick? What were those things that burst out of their stomachs?

Skin had grown over the nub were the squal’s arm was sliced off, but the squal didn’t appear healthy. Squals were usually ugly things, but Mr. Nubby looked much more sallow than usual.

Nubby stepped in the room. “Two hundred fifty-sss-six periods-sss of sss-sleep I sss-searched. I cross-sssed nine realms-sss.” It paced up to the tub. “I’ve had lots-sss of time to learn how to decapitate with my left. Your memories-sss will be mine alone.” It reached for Cross’s neck.

Smartly, Cross had thought it would be wise to keep the Peacemaker at his side at all times. He aimed the revolver from under the water and fired. Nubby didn’t burn.

He raised the revolver out of the water and fired another round through Nubby’s chest. The squal spun, but still didn’t burn.

He shot another round in its back. Nubby scrambled out of the room. Cross jumped out of the tub and found the squal staggering over to a broken bed. It gaped up at him, half snarling, and half gasping for breath. He put a bullet through the layer of skin on its head. It collapsed to the floor and shriveled to Nothing, once and for all.

“Took you long enough,” said Cross.

He returned to the tub and soaked for about ten minutes until a racket came from the next room again.

“What now?” he whispered to himself. “Who the hell could this be?”

The banging on the door grew louder. The noise maker was asking to be greeted with a bullet. He rose out of the tub slowly and eased up to the door, thinking of whom else was hunting his head, trying to figure out who it might that he was going to burn next. It truly could have been anybody.

Suddenly, the banging stopped. His finger hovered over the trigger, and he tip toed over to the side of the door preparing to blast whatever came through when he kicked it open. He prepared his foot to kick the door in.

A
click
sounded behind him. He spun around and came face to face with the Raven.

Ropey danced around like a cobra. Cross stood there naked and dripping, unsure of the Raven’s intentions. After all, it was he who had squealed on her to Diamond Tooth. Regardless, he was still happy to see her.

Her eyes glided down his naked body from his chest to down below his stomach. “We’re not even in the cold Naraka. Does that thing even work?”

Cross squinted sideways. “Come over here and test it out. Make sure.”

Ropey darted towards him, but he didn’t budge.

He patted the dart on its head as if it were a dog. “Good to see you, too.”

“Well, at least you smell better,” said the Raven.

“How the hell did you get out of that camp?” he asked her.

“I’m tagging along with your old friend Diamond Tooth.”

“I didn’t peg you for a talker.”

“I didn’t tell her anything. If I did, I’d probably be burned.”

Cross smiled and laughed. “You and I, we make a better team anyway. I’m so glad we’re together again. Let me get dressed. Then I’ll burn her. Be right back.” He grabbed his shirt.

“She’s not alone,” said the Raven. “There’s five more of ‘em.”

In the middle of fastening his shirt, Cross halted. “Five?”

“Five demons,” said the Raven. “And they all have objects. Our objects.”

The initial intimidation Cross had felt left him and was replaced by a sudden confidence burgeoning within him. He had tamed Grum. He had defeated the red giant Ignatius. He had taken on the serpent form of the Nothing and walked away unharmed. He evaded squals
and
survived the Rudimen. He was a true survivor. It wouldn’t be easy for him to take on five demons, let alone demons with objects, but they weren’t the only ones with objects. The Great Goddess was on his side, and the Toran was his destiny.

He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “I’ll burn them all.”

The Raven said nothing more as he finished buttoning his shirt and slipped on his pants.

He left the Raven in the tower, and crept down the middle of the road. Explosions boomed closer to the village than they had earlier. The whistle of falling brimstone grew louder. Lava dropped from the sky and splashed in the road before him. He stepped around the puddle of lava, blocking the heat with his hands and continued down the road.

At the opposite end of the road, four demons stood posted inside the threshold of a bell-shaped building. In a blink, they fanned out in opposite directions and disappeared behind the smaller buildings of the village.

Cross stepped sideways out of the center of the road. A noise rustled beside him. He aimed his revolver and discovered the Raven leaning against a post, smiling.

“Thought I’d let you burn alone?” she said.

She joined him in the road, and they walked together. It felt good to have someone on his side that was capable of watching his back for once. Even if it was a temporary partnership, he finally had someone again. Someone who wasn’t afraid to burn beside him. Although, Diamond Tooth would want the Raven alive given that she was the only one who knew the name of the skull. Still, the Raven was willing to risk her afterlife to fight beside him, and that meant everything to him.

Side by side, they both paced down the middle of the road between the abandoned buildings, step after cautious step. Cross constantly twisted his head around every which direction checking porches, shadowy corners, and eaves for hidden demons.

Boomph
. An invisible force bent the air at one end of the road. The blur raced towards them. The wavy ripple smashed into the ground. Dirt exploded. The force knocked him back a peg.

Boomph
. Another pulse of energy sailed from out the mound-shaped building that the demons had exited earlier. Cross and the Raven both rolled out of the way. The energy hummed between them and leveled a building behind them.

Out the corner of Cross’s eye, a demon leapt from an eave above. He aimed the Peacemaker. The demon landed before he could squeeze the trigger and cracked him over the head with a cane.

The demon then tapped the can on the ground. Spider legs sprouted from the demon’s midsection. Three of the legs kicked Cross in the stomach at once. He twisted around. Three more kicks connected with his spine. He dropped to his hands and caught kicks to his face. His world spun.

Ropey maneuvered through all eight of the demon’s legs and tied them together. The Raven yanked her end of the rope and swept the demon off his many feet. He slammed to its back and flailed its eight legs. Cross fired, putting a round in the demon’s chest. Its legs curled and stiffened.

Cross crossed himself and got to his feet. The Raven smiled at him for the first time since he had known her. He liked that look on her. It was off-putting, but at the same time, nice. He went to grab the demon’s cane, but it had splintered to pieces.

Boomph
. The air pounded. The energy missed them both without them having to dodge it. The Raven sent her rope dart in the direction of the force’s origin. A pulse repelled Ropey and sent it flying back to the Raven.

Cross shot at the blur. The bullets bounced off it. If only he had possession of his parasol, the lightening could most likely break through the ripple.

Lightning struck the ground in front of him. A demon standing on an eave twirled his pink parasol. The Great Goddess was paying attention. He thanked her and fired at the demon. She ducked.

An invisible force knocked him off his feet, but it wasn’t one of the energy pulses. It was a blur of light. It raced away, leaving a trail in the dirt behind it. The Raven’s rope dart chased the flash, but failed to catch it. Ropey had finally met its match in speed.

Two female demons stepped out into the middle of the road. One carried the Raven’s amphora. The other held a lantern.

A squeal seared through the sky. All four of them dropped to the ground, covering their heads. A steaming blob of molten lava flopped down between them and exploded into a cloud of steam.

Cross and the Raven broke away from each other, dashing in opposite directions, leaving both demons coughing in the steam. Cross hid on a crumbling porch behind a pillar.

The demon with the amphora emptied a stream of water onto the lava. Flowers grew inside the cooling lava until a full garden had sprouted up. The demons stalked within the steamy garden, hunting for their prey.

The Raven stepped out from her hiding spot between buildings and whistled at the demons. They turned in her direction. Ropey struck for the demon carrying the lantern. She whisked away in a flash of light, escaping the impaling.

The other demon tilted the amphora and poured a river onto the road. The cascade bashed the Raven and swept her down the road.

Cross aimed at the demon from his spot on the porch. A lightning bolt struck the porch railing in front of him before he could shoot. The blast knocked him backward, and he almost broke through the front door of the house.

He gathered himself to his feet in time to see the Raven flap her wings and fly over the river that was once Main Street. One of her wings went limp. She dipped to the side, but she managed to launch her rope dart through the demons amphora, shattering it and skewering the demon in one motion. The river ran dry and left behind a garden path down Main Street.

Lightning struck the Raven out of the whistling sky. She twirled and flopped into a flower bed.

Cross raced towards her, dodging falling lobs of lava and lightning strikes. He dove into the garden, rolled to his back and fired at the roof. The demon stuttered and tumbled off the eave.

He crossed himself and winked at the Raven before racing over to get the parasol. The speed demon beat him to it. She snatched the umbrella from the ground and flashed away in a blur of light.

The ground exploded in lava, wilting the colorful flower peddles and singeing the nice grass. Heat and steam now clouded the garden.

He peered through the mist, looking for movement. When the steam settled, he discovered the speed demon lying on the ground, injured in the lava blast. Her broken lantern lay beside her, and the parasol was within a crawl’s reach of her.

At the sight of Cross approaching her, she crawled backwards frantically and reached for the umbrella. Ropey impaled the demon.

“That one was Ropey’s,” said the Raven, now on her feet.

Boomph
. The pulse slapped Cross in the back. He hit the ground chest first.

Ropey darted, swiveled around another pulse and pierced through the wall of the building that harbored the demon. The Raven heaved the rope.

The final demon burst through the wall, yanked by the end of the rope dart. It was the ugliest of all the demons. It looked like a skeleton made entirely of thorns. Its skull reminded Cross of Bolon-Hunahpu, and he had the odd feeling that he was staring into Diamond Tooth’s eyes.

Even though impaled, the thorny demon managed to bang a hammer at the air.
Boomph
. A wave of energy cracked out of the hammer and bowled Cross over. The blur hummed away until it clashed with the tower at the other end of the road where he had taken his bath. The tower collapsed onto itself. Cross hoped the Ankou had gotten that baby out of there.

He snatched up the parasol and struck the demon. The hammer jolted out of the demon’s hands.

“Hey Raven, none of the demons burned.”

“I noticed,” she said.

“But if this is their first death, that means they were born in the underworld.”

“Seems that way.”

“But I thought no spirits or souls could reproduce here.”

“This place changes the rules to benefit itself and to torture us.”

“You know, I saw a baby earlier.”

“A baby? Here?”

“An Ankou was guarding it in that tower at the other end of the road. You don’t think these demons were Diamond Tooth’s children, do you? They all kind of looked like her.”

“I noticed that too.” The Raven picked up the hammer and clipped it to her belt.

One of her wings was splotched with blood as black as her feathers. A part of him cared enough to want to bandage her wing, but his mind shifted toward the astrolabe—his ticket out of the underworld. Instead of asking the Raven about her injury, like he wanted to, what came out of his mouth was: “Diamond Tooth is mine.”

The Raven nodded in a way that made him feel low, as if she wanted him to finally cater to her, but was disappointed that he didn’t. It was the wrong impression he wanted her to have, but it would most likely serve his best interest to keep her at arm’s length.