Cybermancy (17 page)

I’d been there before and knew the routine, so I slowly turned in place until I saw it. Far off and high up, a speck appeared.
Castle Discord.
Our arrival had triggered the doorbell, and now the castle was coming to us. As I watched, it grew steadily closer, becoming a ragged chunk of golden granite. The top was hidden by the angle at first, but as it descended, I could see a great splash of green covering the surface. It looked nothing like it had the last time I’d seen it. No surprise.

Castle Discord doesn’t actually exist in the way most people mean the word. It’s entirely a state of mind. I can’t even begin to explain the spells involved in its creation. It’s very deep, wild magic of the kind that scares the living daylights out of me. All I can speak to is the result. Castle Discord is a sort of mathematical description of a place with all the descriptors as variables that can be adjusted by the whim of its occupant. One minute it’s a medieval cathedral, the next it’s a Vegas-style casino. It depends entirely on what Eris’s notoriously changeable mood desires.

Even more bizarre, when she isn’t actively exerting her will on the place, it will rearrange itself to suit the whim of whoever happens to be wandering its halls, a fact I had discovered on my first—unauthorized—visit. At the moment, it most looked like some sort of huge botanical garden occupying a series of interlinked greenhouses. But that was on the outside. We wouldn’t know about the inside until we got there.

When it reached a point about a hundred feet above us and perhaps twice that distance away, Castle Discord stopped moving. An archway opened just below the rim. Like some sort of huge stone frog mouth, it spat a long flight of stairs at us. They had no railing and looked to be made of black glass. As with the welcome mat itself, some sort of invisible barrier kept the stuff of chaos from pressing too close to the stairs.

“Have I mentioned that this is a bad idea?” mumbled Shara, when the stairs touched down in front of us.

“I’d certainly gotten that impression, yes.” I stepped up onto the first stair. “But unless you want to play ‘ring the doorbell and run away’ with the Goddess of Chaos, we’d best get moving.”

“I think it’s fascinating,” said Cerice, following close behind. “Ever since you first described this place to me, I’ve wanted to see it.”

I’d been here any number of times since my initial visit but always by invitation, an invitation that had included only me and Melchior. I probably could have brought Cerice, but I’d always felt it safer to keep her away from Discord. Eris might find me amusing. She might even have a soft spot for me. But she was one of the most dangerous and certainly the most capricious of goddesses. I preferred not to give her any more handles on me than I had to, and Cerice would make a mighty fine one.

I looked past her now to Shara, who was reluctantly bringing up the rear. I wished there was something more I could do for the little purple webgoblin. I missed the wild, willful, sexy creature she had been before her time in Hades, and it tore at my heart to see her so subdued. I’m not sure which was worse, that or the fact that I’d started having suspicions about her. I hated my own paranoia, but that didn’t prevent me from keeping one eye on her as we climbed the stairs. On one of my periodic glances her way, I noticed a bright flash on the welcome mat that I might otherwise have missed. It was similar to a locus transfer yet not quite the same.

“I wonder what that is,” I said quietly. I couldn’t think of any answer that would make me happy.

“What?” asked
Cerice.

Instead of responding I stepped past Shara, and said, “Melchior, Eagle Eye. Please.”

He quickly whistled the spell that gave me the vision of a raptor,
then
duplicated it for Cerice, Shara, and himself.

A bright rip had opened in the air at the base of the stairs, like someone had sliced a hole through from someplace else. That was because someone had. I’d seen the effect once before. It was the Furies’ version of an LTP gate. I didn’t know how it worked, except that it involved the adamantine claws that tipped their fingers and some special application of the powers granted them as Necessity’s personal handmaidens and IT staff.

First through the gap was Megaera with her seaweed-colored wings and hair, not to mention a personal vendetta against yours truly. I didn’t honestly care who came next. None of them was good news, and I couldn’t help but think their arrival here and now was no coincidence.

“Run!” I said, turning back toward the castle. Cerice was ahead of me. She’d already scooped up Shara, and was taking the remaining stairs two at a time. I grabbed Melchior and followed.

We were already close to the top, and I felt confident we’d reach the gate ahead of the Furies. But there my confidence ended. Whether the doors would open for us, and what would happen after, I didn’t know.

Cerice, running just ahead of me, passed through the stone arch at the top of the stairs,
then
skidded to a stop. Beyond lay a small vestibule lined with gold-veined black marble. The far wall held an elevator door beside a single button, marked “?”.
Typical Eris.
I pushed the button then glanced back down the stairs in time to see the light that had announced the arrival of the Furies blink out. They were all on this side of the rift now.

I felt sweat break out on my forehead as I realized they were at most a minute or two behind us. If not for the narrowness of the stairs preventing the use of their wings, they would have already arrived. I hit the elevator button again. It didn’t help. The Furies began to climb the stairs, their wings tightly furled around their naked bodies. Megaera led the way. Behind her was Alecto. I couldn’t really see her, hidden as she was by her sister, but I remembered her well enough.

She was taller than Megaera and curvier, with hair and wings like storm-shot night, lightning forking and reforking with her every move. Her skin was a stony gray, save only her lips and nipples, which mirrored the storm in her hair. Bringing up the rear would be Tisiphone, tall and slender and fire-haired. I checked the elevator.
Still not there.

“What should we do?” asked Cerice, loosening her sword in its sheath and opening the flap of her holster.

“Not that,” I said, reaching over and resnapping her holster. “Neither guns nor
swords are
going to have a big effect on them. Even magic wouldn’t help much.”

Cerice nodded and bent her head close to Shara’s.
Still no elevator.
I checked the stairs. Perhaps sixty feet still separated us from the Furies. Megaera waved and gave me a jaunty smile that set what felt like a small horde of flying bugs to buzzing in my stomach. To hide my fear I waved back. When the distance had closed to perhaps ten feet, the elevator dinged.

Too late
, I thought as the doors slowly opened.
Way too late.

Still, I turned and followed Cerice aboard, hoping to avoid a confrontation. This time there were two buttons. They said, HERE and THERE. Cerice had already hit the THERE button, lighting it up, but the doors remained open as the Furies entered the alcove.

“Hit them with a spell?” Cerice whispered in my ear.

“Not a good idea,” I answered, handing Melchior to Cerice to clear my hands.

They hadn’t made any hostile moves, and I didn’t want to provoke them if by some slender chance they weren’t here for us. Nor did they attack, as one by one they joined us in the elevator. I edged toward the back when they got on, putting my body between the Furies and Cerice and the goblins. It wouldn’t provide much of a shield, but I had to do what I could.

A sign by the buttons claimed the elevator had a capacity of ten people. That might have been true if none of them were Furies. But between the wings and their apparent personal space issues with each other, it would have been quite full with just the three of them. Add Cerice and me and two goblins and it became something like a sackful of cats, all hard looks and sharp points. It didn’t help that the Furies had never developed elevator manners. Instead of sliding inside and looking at the doors, they were all facing the back and me.

“Hello, Raven,” said Megaera, who stood closest to the door. She tapped the THERE button. This time the doors immediately closed. As they did, a horrible steel drum rendition of “The Girl from Ipanema” began to play. “Thanks for holding the elevator.”

“Very polite,” said Alecto’s voice from somewhere on the far side of Megaera. She was once again hidden by her sisters’ wings. “Not at all like the last time we saw him.”

“But that was such fun,” said Tisiphone, who was practically pressed against my chest. “Cat and mouse is my
favorite
game. And he made such a cute little mousie.” She made batting motions inches from my nose, highlighting the long, deadly claws that tipped her fingers. Her voice dropped half an octave. “Didn’t you, Raven?” And she ran one of those fingers down my chest from throat to navel.

It’s never wise to meet the eyes of a goddess. They can do things to you that way if you give them the chance.
At the same time, I didn’t dare
not
look at Tisiphone.
So I kept my eyes down to avoid her gaze. Unfortunately, that meant I was staring at her breasts. They were very nice breasts, high and small and very pale, with erect nipples the color of flame. If they’d been on some other chest or in different circumstances, I might even have enjoyed the view. As it was, both the personality attached to the body and the fact that I had my heavily armed girlfriend pressed against my back made for a situation of acute discomfort. I found myself half-wishing they’d just kill me and get it over with.

Excruciating seconds slid by with no sound other than Discord’s demonically inspired choice in elevator music. I’d have to think of some way to pay her back for that if I got out of this in one piece.
That and the funny business with a door that closed for Megaera but not for me or Cerice.
More time passed. What was taking so long?

“Is this thing even moving?” squeaked Melchior, echoing my own thoughts.

“It is,” said Alecto. “Though not very quickly.”

“I think someone is deliberately tormenting her guests,”
grumped
Megaera.

“I don’t know,” said Tisiphone. “I’m rather enjoying the ride, though my wings
are
a bit cramped.” She rolled her shoulders, which did interesting things to my view, then stepped forward a little so that I was suddenly sandwiched between her and Cerice.

Some guys would have killed to be where I was right then, pressed tight between an incredibly sexy blonde and a smoking hot redhead, the latter naked.
I
would have killed to change places with any one of those guys. Especially when I felt a sharp heat against my groin and realized that it must be coming from Tisiphone’s literally flaming pubic hair. I wasn’t sure which was worse, the idea that my pants might actually catch fire or the fact that despite all the terrified gibbering going on in my forebrain, I could feel myself growing hard at the contact.

Nor, if I was interpreting Tisiphone’s smile correctly, was I the only one who could feel my response. I’m not sure what would have happened next if the elevator door hadn’t picked that exact moment to open, but I was mighty pleased that I didn’t have to find out.

“We’re here,” said Megaera, stepping backwards out of the elevator.

“About time,” said Alecto, likewise leaving the elevator.

“So soon?” said Tisiphone, and I felt her hand slide between us to squeeze me through the leather of my pants.
“Pity.”
Then she peeled herself away from my front and followed her sisters.

I surreptitiously glanced down to see if my pants had taken any lasting harm from their encounter with Tisiphone’s fiery loins. It also gave me a chance to make sure my erection wasn’t too blatant. It wasn’t, and my pants appeared completely unharmed. At that, a part of my mind pointed out that the heat had never risen into the range of pain. That same part wanted to indulge in further speculation about the positive implications of fire that didn’t burn me and how it might apply to other activities involving closer contact between the regions in question. I brutally suppressed the thought, helped along when a none-too-gentle push against the base of my spine reminded me of Cerice’s presence and her probable take on any ideas I might have in that direction.

“Were you planning on getting off the elevator?” she
asked,
her tone sharp. “Or did you just want to stay here and lean against me while you try to put your tongue back in your mouth?”

I stepped smartly forward, then turned and bowed her out of the elevator.
“After you, my lady.”

She gave me a hard look. “Don’t think a sudden reversion to courtly manners is going to get you off the hook, boyo.”

“Never,” I said, holding the bow. “But please keep in mind that I didn’t have a lot of room for maneuvering.”

“That’s the
only
thing that’s keeping you from the top slot on my shit list.”

“Are you children going to join us, or are you just going to hiss at each other in the elevator?” The voice was one hundred percent sex and completely poisonous. Eris.

The goddess has sunk a considerable amount of power into sex appeal, and only Aphrodite can turn the heat up any further. The big difference is motive. Aphrodite is, well, Aphrodite. Sex and love
are
her thing. Eris, on the other hand, is all come-hither and no come-here. Like Artemis, she’s a virgin goddess. But her motives are very different. Eris wants you to die from desire, or better yet, kill for it. Strife is her business, though unlike her brother, Ares, she generally prefers it come at the personal level, dueling over war. Her carnal voice is a potent weapon in her arsenal of destruction, but thanks to an alliance we’d once had, she usually didn’t use it around me.