From Hell with Love (38 page)

“Shhh, don’t worry.  I’ve got you now,” he said with a soft voice, watching the man’s face twist in pain and confusion.

“Is this Hell?” he asked, which made Barbas’ heart ache for the poor boy.

“I’m afraid so.  I’m sorry,” he replied, clearing the man’s hair from his sweating brow.  The soul groaned before breathing out in desperation.

“It hurts,” he whined in pure reaction, which made Barbas bite his lip before responding.  He did what he could to hide his pity, and instead tried to provide relief for the young boy.

“I know, young man, I know.  That will pass.”

“Who are you?” he asked, his eye closing from fatigue, but clearly still conscious.  When he opened it up again, Barbas was crying.

“A friend.  A mentor.  Whatever you need me to be.”

Chapter 11: Fall of the House of Lucifer

“What the hell were you thinking, Nico?” Lucifer yelled, slamming his fist on the desk in front of him.  Niccolo had not been in Lucifer’s private chambers for a few years, but with all of the demons in the palace, his bedroom was the only appropriate place for this conversation.  It was just the two of them, Azazel and Cadmus in the room; no one else needed to hear them speaking.

“Scratch, he was saying some really terrible things.  He said that it might be good for you to die, that it might be good for Hell to be destroyed,” Niccolo tried to explain, but Lucifer did not appreciate his excuses.  The fallen angel closed his eyes before bringing up his hands to cover them.

“He’s the
Leviathan
, Nico.  You can’t talk to him and expect him to understand…
feelings
,” he said before turning to Azazel, who was leaning against the wall near his bed, which was just a simple mattress on top of an unassuming frame.

“You can’t expect him to understand anything but his stomach,” the blindfolded demon said before picking his nose.

“Who is he, anyway?” Niccolo asked, desperate for a straight answer, but was met with a laugh from the grey-skinned demon, who flicked away the booger he had found in his nostril.

“Hah, you don’t want to know,” he said, but Niccolo stepped forward and pointed his blighted index finger toward Azazel.

“I
do
, Zell!  I’ve been in the dark for way too long,” Niccolo shouted, but Cadmus stepped forward to place his hand on his shoulder, trying to hold him back.  The blindfolded demon let out a bark of laughter before shoving himself off the wall and shaking his head, his tail coiling around his leg above the hoof.

“Um, you don’t really know what ‘too long’
is
, kiddo.”

“Enough of this,” Lucifer said as he wiped his face and then set his hands on his hips and pacing in front of his desk.  “Nico,” he continued without looking at the Horseman, “the Leviathan is not your problem.  He’s…not even a problem.  He’s just here for the council, and he’ll leave as soon as it’s over.  That monster is not your concern.”

“Fine,” Niccolo admitted, lowering his arm and shifting in his place.

“What
is
your concern is not making a goddamned scene in the Reception Hall!” Lucifer shouted, despair in his voice.  The ruler of Hell turned to Niccolo and set his left arm across his torso and used it to support his right arm, which was holding up his head.  “Do you know how much trouble you’ve created for me?  For the last two million years I’ve been trying to prove that you humans aren’t worthless, that you have something to offer, and you’re
not
exactly helping that.”

“Scratch,” Niccolo said, shaking his head and wanting to explain himself, but the disappointment in Lucifer’s golden eyes was enough to halt the words in his throat.

“I can count on one hand the number of kings who are
ambivalent
to humans and that little explosion might have lowered that number, Nico.  Some of the kings are just looking for an excuse to take control of Hell, and if it looks like I take counsel from a spoiled, human brat, it does not help my position.”

“Look, Scratch, that isn’t important,” Niccolo started, which made Azazel cackle.

“I’m sorry, say that again.  Just keep on telling
the Devil
what’s important,” he said with a wild grin, but Cadmus finally joined the conversation to support his friend.

“He’s right, even if he doesn’t know the first thing about subtlety,” the reaper said, looking to Lucifer with worry.  “We’re not here to make a scene.  We’re here to gather information.”

“Alright, explain yourself, Horseman,” Lucifer said, his voice weary; the fallen was obviously tired of fighting them.  Cadmus turned slightly to look at Niccolo before nodding slightly, then resumed eye contact with Lucifer.

“We’re here to stop the Cult of Ascension, Lucifer.  They’re,” he started, but Azazel interrupted him.

“We know who they are.  Ronové briefed us on them back during their heyday.”

“You do?  Then…why didn’t you tell us earlier?  We rode all over Dis for that information,” Niccolo stated, bringing a sigh from Lucifer.

“We were hoping it was just rumors.  Maybe that it was something else,” Lucifer admitted, looking at the Horsemen with tired eyes.  “But it’s not exactly like I can go all over Hell without people noticing, especially this close to the council.  It would draw too much attention.”

“You planned for us to find out for you,” Cadmus muttered, bringing a nod from their leader.

“Every once in a while I have to be cunning, reaper.  You don’t get to rule eleven kingdoms without learning how to pull some strings,” he said before walking over to his bed and then sitting down.  “So you think it’s the Cult behind Räum’s vision?”

“That’s what we think,” Cadmus admitted, worrying the handle of his scythe with both hands.  “It looks like the Shroud was never killed, Ronové and Crocell said as much, and it seems like he’s back and more powerful than ever.  Crocell said that he had never been able to turn the Fallen before, but just yesterday two angels were turned into mindless animals.”

“Apparently Andras got caught, too,” Azazel said, his tail unwrapping from his leg to tap at Lucifer’s knee.  “Not one of the family, but not really someone we wanted to lose.”

“You know about Andras?” Niccolo asked, which caused the blindfolded demon to turn toward him in confusion.

“Of course, he’s part of Astaroth’s network.  I keep my ear to the ground.”

“If you knew all of this,” Niccolo said before clenching his fists and yelling, “if you knew all of this, why the
fuck
didn’t you tell us?”

“Calm down, Nico,” Lucifer said before rubbing his forehead with his right hand.  “From up here, we hear rumors.  We needed to
know
what was going on.  Now,” he said before sighing, “now we do.”

“Is there anything else?” Azazel asked, crossing his arms and standing next to Lucifer.  Cadmus frowned at them for a moment, but then relented.

“We think some of the kings are in on it.  Sitri was guiding us,” he started, but Azazel shook his head before putting the palm of his right hand up to his face.

“You’re trusting
him
?”

“He’s a she, today,” Lucifer added.  “I thought you kept your ear to the ground.”

“That’s not important,” Cadmus interrupted the two fallen angels, shocking them into silence.  They had never heard the reaper talk back to them like this; Cadmus was supposed to be the respectful one.

“What’s important,” he continued before glancing at Niccolo to include him, “is that Sitri has good information that your most vocal opponents are not content with just speaking against you, Lucifer.  Bael could be playing both sides, but Viné and Belial have been raging against you in speeches they’ve made in their provinces.”

“That’s not a surprise,” Azazel commented, but Cadmus continued over him.

“Granted, but what Sitri had heard about them is somewhat disconcerting, and from the conversations I had with them…you weren’t there,” he mentioned to Niccolo, “they’re hiding something.”

“I’ll take that into account, Cadmus,” Lucifer said before looking at Azazel.  “They
have
been getting more vocal in the last few centuries.”

“Not all the kings are bad, though,” Niccolo added, drawing the gaze of the other three.  “Paimon, Amdusias and Asmodeus seem trustworthy.”

“Well, Paimon and the twins were never really questionable,” Azazel said in dismissal, but Lucifer gave him a light tap on the elbow.

“It’s good to have an outsider’s perspective, Zell.  Thank you, Nico,” he said as he turned to face the Horsemen.  “Well,” he muttered before pushing himself off the bed and onto his feet, “it’s time for the council.  Hopefully they won’t try anything there.”

“We could just ask them, you know?” Azazel teased.  “I’m sure they’ll admit trying to kill you.  We
are
family, after all,” he said, which brought a weary laugh from his friend.

“That used to count for something, didn’t it?” he asked before walking up to Niccolo and setting his gentle hands on the leper’s shoulders.  “Thank you, Nico.  You too, Cadmus,” Lucifer said, briefly turning to include the reaper, “I know you don’t appreciate being left out of the loop, but we needed to know.”

“I understand,” Niccolo said, staring up into the kind demon’s eyes.  “I don’t like it, but I understand.  What are you going to say in there?” he asked, making Lucifer straighten up and look past him.

“Not much, really.  I’m just going to argue against them when they accuse me of being a terrible leader.  These meetings are honestly pretty useless, but you’ll see,” he said before patting Niccolo’s shoulders and then moving past him toward the door.

“I’ll see?” Niccolo asked, which caused the fallen angel to pause.

“Well, yeah.  You’re coming, too.  Both of you,” he said before nodding at Cadmus.

“You’re bringing humans to the
council
?” Azazel asked in confusion, but Lucifer just shrugged.

“Why not?”

“Because that will make Beleth and the others angry?” the blindfolded demon suggested, but that just caused Lucifer’s expression to break into a mischievous smile.

“
Exactly
.  That’s how I want them,” Lucifer teased before opening the door and stepping through, looking over his shoulder at the Horsemen.

“Come on, we don’t want to be late.”

***

The three of them walked through the palace, down seemingly endless stairways and through side rooms Niccolo had never seen before, and it was all the Horsemen could do to keep up with Lucifer.  Every one of his strides equaled two of theirs, so by the time they made it to the doorway which led out to the Overlook, both Horsemen were slightly winded.  Two humans Niccolo recognized as the Hell Knights, Lucifer’s personal guard, were stationed outside the massive doors and, from the expression on the woman’s face, Niccolo could tell they were very late.

“Might want to take a deep breath, Lucifer,” the woman said, breathing out heavily as Lucifer approached her.  Niccolo recognized her immediately from one of the games he had seen in the Pits; Cimeries was one of the strongest warriors in Hell, coming from a long tradition of Amazon warriors.  The Horseman had never seen her nervous, she was fearless in the face of gruesome demons, but the woman covered in light, hodgepodge armor now looked concerned.  Her gauntlet rattled as she gripped the handle of her pike even tighter.

“They all here?” Lucifer asked, bringing a nod from the other guard, who had been a tribal warrior on the African plains.  Furcas did not wear metal armor like his compatriot and instead wore light, leather armor he had made himself.  The former human kept his long, dark hair in dreads, complemented by the occasional bone from past enemies as a symbol of his achievements, and his legend had grown over his centuries of service.  Now he was leaning on the long spear in his hand and bit his lip in discomfort.

“They’ve been yelling for your head, angel.  Very loud about it; could hear them from over here,” Furcas said before walking over to the door and opening it for the ruler of Hell.  “Good time to stop them, I think.”

“I’ll try that, Furcas,” he said before motioning for the Horsemen to follow him to the Overlook.

Niccolo was stunned as he took it all in.  The Overlook was a massive place, a part of the palace he had never seen before, and now he wondered how the palace hadn’t fallen apart over the years.  While he could see the kings all gathered at the tall podiums at the bottom of the stairs, Niccolo could not stop staring at the huge room, which seemed to be as big as the foundation for the palace.  Massive arches spread across the breadth of the room, making Niccolo wonder just who was the architect of such a thing.

“Seems impossible, doesn’t it?” Cadmus asked with a slight smile.  Niccolo shook his head and continued staring.

“What?” he asked as he stared at the lava rising and falling behind the bickering demons at the bottom of the stairs.  It seemed insane that there was all this empty space beneath the palace.

“The bottom fell out thousands of years ago,” Cadmus explained, pushing Niccolo’s back as he walked, forcing the leper to walk with him.  “The palace was built a long time ago when the lava flows were much lower.  When Hell was struck by a massive earthquake, the old palace had to be abandoned and, well, they built the new one on top of the old foundation.  This used to be the old throne room.”

“The new one’s better.  The old room inspired agoraphobia,” Lucifer added, not bothering to face his young companions.

“I wouldn’t know,” Cadmus said before resuming his explanation.  “But since they needed a place to host the Council of Kings, they figured this would suit them.  Now, every one hundred years, Lucifer has to come down here and convince ten demons they shouldn’t kill each other.”

“And that’s getting harder every century, boys,” Lucifer said as he reached the bottom step and walked toward the demons at their podiums, which were arranged in a semi-circle with enough room for them to be comfortable.  There were still two hundred yards between them and the gathered demons, but they all noticed the fallen angel’s approach.  Their yelling and arguments halted until Lucifer reached the center of the semicircle, the Horsemen standing on either side of him.