Limbo's Child (81 page)

“GRABER!” he said in the most gregarious manner possible, “Hey! I was just dying to ask who your fashion consultant is, because that blood-smeared sweatshirt and jeans ‘Night of the Living Dead’ look you’ve got going is just KILL – er!”

“That’s it Lucy! Keep it up!”

Lucy could see the tunnel of light now. It floated over her mother’s heart and was about two feet wide, but it kept growing by the second. It was roaring like a jet engine.

“Just a little bigger!” Amanda kept encouraging her.

The gate was like a giant hole in space, and it felt like it was sucking the very oxygen out of the room. The candles had all been blown out and several loose scraps of paper in the room were being pulled in. The only thing that wasn’t being pulled in was the stone itself, which it strangely pushed away with great force. If Lucy hadn’t been holding on to it, she would have been afraid to be sucked in herself. Her arm ached like she had tetanus, but she didn’t dare let go. She just kept thinking of her mother and pushing the stone forward.

“Almost there!”

The strain was almost unbearable, but the gate kept getting wider and wider, the force growing increasingly more intense, shoving her hand away while it pulled on her hair and pajamas so hard it hurt. Soon the gate was nearly four feet tall.

“Almost there, Lucy! Just a little more!”

Lucy closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. The stone was so hot now it nearly burned, but still she didn’t dare give up. She groaned out loud and started hyperventilating and was about to give up.

“THERE!” Amanda shouted.

Lucy looked up. She could see a small, black circle at the end of the tunnel of light. The black circle expanded until it revealed a room, no another tunnel! There were piles of rubble and a debris-strewn path and what looked like the broken foot of an enormous statue. They had broken through! The pain and struggle eased up a little now, but didn’t go away entirely.

“Now, Lucy! Now I’ll go through and find your mother. Hold it open for as long as you can!”

Just then there was a loud crashing sound from the other side of the room. The double doors flew open and Miles and Sky crashed through them. They skidded across the floor, nearly to the lounge where Lucy’s mother lay. Graber stalked in behind. Hokharty stiffened. Yo-yo jumped up from the dais, ran to Lucy’s side and hugged her tight around the middle.

“Dude, that hurt!” Sky stood up and yanked Miles off the ground. “I can’t believe that didn’t work! I was certain he’d fall for a sucker punch! He must be smarter than he looks.”

“Aye, and a wee bit faster than we thought too.”

“
Vampires
,” Amanda muttered contemptuously under her breath, “I
hate
vampires.” “HOKHARTY! KILL THEM!!”

Hokharty balked. He looked angry at this order to attack his own, but he obeyed. He took off his leather jacket and tossed it aside. He walked towards the two of them with a purposeful stride.

Miles looked up and locked eyes with Lucy.

“LUCY, STOP!!” he yelled.

Lucy’s hand wavered a fraction of a second.

“NO, LUCY! DON’T STOP!” Amanda screamed. Miles looked to Graber who was fast closing on them from behind with Amarantha and Hokharty ahead.

“Stick to the plan?” Miles muttered with a dry chuckle.

Sky replied sarcastically, “And pray baldy’s pet has a bazooka shoved up its….”

“Remember!” Miles cut him off, “If Graber grabs ya it’s over, ya won’t ever get free after that. Stay away from him.”

“You too. Don’t let Hokharty pin you down, and if he turns into those golden insects, don’t look back, just run.”

With that, Sky bolted for Graber. Graber rushed forward to grab him, but Sky flipped right over him and bounced off the far wall. It turned out Graber could jump pretty high himself, but Sky was just a fraction of a second quicker. Sky managed to reach the double doors near the dais and burst through them and into the garden just before Graber. Graber tore after him and into the woods. Sky had done his part, now it was Miles’ turn.

Hokharty zeroed in on Miles and broke into a run as his form exploded into a cloud of thick, red smoke that rose up into the form of a serpent. The serpent reared up and then lightning-quick struck at Miles. Miles stood frozen and was about to be consumed by the serpent’s jaws when he transformed into the dog monster and barreled towards Amarantha and Lucy. The snake’s fangs struck the floor just inches from the dog-monster’s hindquarters. Miles bore down on Amanda, but she stood her ground and didn’t transform. Miles opened his jaws wide but something grabbed him from behind and his teeth closed on air just inches from Amanda. Hokharty had snagged him. The giant, red snake dragged him back and gathered itself like a boa constrictor around Miles.

As Miles was dragged away, he had a sickening feeling he had seen this little drama before. This was how Wallach died. Soon he would be crushed like Wallach and killed only something was different. He was in pain, but he was not fading as fast as he had before just now with Sky. Think, Miles! He wasn’t all that sharp to begin with and in the dog form things came even slower to him. The coils of the snake bound him ever tighter. Hokharty had stopped Ulami dead in her tracks with just a glance. What had Hokharty said all that while ago in the woods in the fight with Ulami and Forzgrim? Knowledge and reason. Think, ya stupid blighter! Think! What was different about the time Hokharty took out Wallach? Then Miles realized. It was him! Hokharty hadn’t defeated Wallach on his own. He needed Miles. Miles had been fighting with Wallach the same way that Hokharty had been fighting with Ulami. Only now Hokharty didn’t have Miles’ help. How to do it? The eyes. He had to look him in the eyes.

Miles cleared his head and turned to glare into the serpent’s eyes. The giant snake hissed and looked away. The grip of the serpent wavered but didn’t let go. That was something – not nearly enough – but it did give Miles a little more time to think. What to do?! First, he had to get out of these coils before he was crushed to death. He ignored the pain and forced it away. Then he remembered how Hokharty had changed first into smoke, then into the serpent. Could he do the same? Somehow he let go of his body and felt it disintegrate around him into the smoke but he didn’t let himself coalesce back into human form just yet. He almost lost himself for a moment there, but he stayed as a cloud of smoke and passed right through the coils of the snake. Then he moved away and reformed into his human shape. Miles looked down at his hands. He had never imagined he could do anything like that. Then he remembered he was in the middle of a fight.

He looked at Lucy and Amarantha who looked stunned, and then to Hokharty who had also transformed back into his human state. Miles fixed him with a withering stare and formed a single thought, “STOP!” Hokharty winced and hesitated. Miles smiled. Maybe this wasn’t going to be a rout after all. Then Hokharty stared back and Miles instantly felt like an ice pick had been shoved into his left eye.

“Aaargh!” Miles screamed, slapping his hand over his eye, nearly falling to his knees, but then he managed to bring his gaze back to Hokharty with his one good eye and push back. Hokharty flinched again, but less this time. His gaze softened and then Miles heard Hokharty speak inside his head.

“Yield, my child,” the voice inside his head spoke with a booming echo. “Yield and no harm will come to you, I promise. I have no desire to kill you. Least of all you.”

“Me?!” Miles thought, uncertain if Hokharty could hear him, “What’s so ruddy special about me?!” Miles pushed back. He shouted out in his mind as hard as he could, “STOP THIS! STOP Amanda! You’re going to destroy the world!”

Hokharty replied to his mind, “It is too late, child of the shadows, too late for us, but there may yet may be enough time for others before the end of time.”

That was so cryptic Miles figured not even Nephys could make sense of it. Hokharty went on projecting his thoughts, “I regret what must be done, but I cannot let even you stop it.” Hokharty’s face began disintegrating before his eyes into a mass of glittering insects.

“Sweet Brigid,” Miles said out loud. He looked at Lucy who looked equally horrified and then at Amanda who was staring down Miles with a venomous glare, but by the time he turned back, Hokharty was gone and had been replaced by a swarm of golden locusts. Miles had no choice. He instantly turned into his dog form and fled back towards the foyer. He sure hoped the kid and that bloody imp of his could help him now.

“AFTER HIM!” Amanda screamed in rage. The swarm of insects poured out of the hall, stripping the paint and plaster off the walls as it went. Lucy had to close her eyes and cringe as the chattering insects flew by. They tore at the already-tattered robe, revealing more of the wide-eyed princess kitties.

Lucy opened her eyes to see where they had gone, but Amanda grabbed her by the face and squeezed her cheeks painfully.

“CONCENTRATE ON THE GATE!” she yelled, “EVERYTHING DEPENDS ON THE GATE!” Then she calmed herself and stepped back. “Hold it open as long as you can, I’ll be back as soon as I am able.”

There was a blast of cold, grey light. Amanda disappeared and was replaced by the tall, hollow-eyed specter of Amarantha with its long, black hair flying. The specter rose up briefly before storming through the gate and down the tunnel of light to the tunnel on the other side.

Maggie made her way back out to the street. There were dozens of shades in the streets now, but they completely ignored her. They were all heading in the same direction. She ran out a little further into the street and looked at the horizon. There was a blue-white light glowing on the far side of the city near where the causeway stood. It was the Gates of Erebus and all the shades were heading that way. As she looked, the blue light pulsed once brilliantly, and there were screams of terror coming from that direction.

Before she had time to think, the earth beneath her feet shook with a violent shuddering, followed by another scream, but nothing that could be produced by men or even spirits. It was high and piercing like an eagle, and low like the moaning of an ox, with the roar of a lion superimposed over all of it. In every note there were dread words, thousands of them chanted and spoken as if by a thousand voices, speaking tomes of forbidden knowledge and wisdom. It nearly unstitched Maggie’s fragile mind, and all time seemed to grind to a halt.

Maggie turned to look at the center of the city. The silhouette of the acropolis, which normally lay dark and invisible, hidden by a veil of gloom, was lit by a strange, sickly amber glow that was gathering about it like a storm. The earth shuddered again, and a few of the remaining spires and towers of the acropolis, the last vestiges of Elysium, crumbled and tumbled to the ground. The earth shook again, paused and then shook once more. Maggie clutched her head as she realized what the earth-shaking tremors really were. They were footsteps. Death was leaving his temple.

“Oh, Lucy,” Maggie said in horror, “What have you done?”

She knew she had to do something, but had no idea what. She had to try to stop Death from leaving the underworld somehow. She turned to go, but when she turned she found herself face to face with the long-haired specter with hollow eyes.

Graber was standing so still in the woods outside Rivenden anyone who saw him would have thought he was some macabre avant-garde statue. He was waiting for a sign or a sound of his quarry that had evaded him several times already. A twig broke somewhere to his right. The suddenness of his movements made the previous stillness all the more amazing by comparison. He leaped and fell on a nearby bush like a tank dropped by a helicopter. Sky erupted out of the bush where he was hiding just in time to avoid the thundering crash. He responded with a flying kick, but Graber deftly dodged the blow and grabbed Sky’s foot as it passed harmlessly by his face and pulled Schuyler to the ground with a colossal thud.

“
Crap
,” Sky muttered in pain and frustration.

Graber reeled him in with both hands until he had his hand on Sky’s throat and lifted him into the air.

Sky threw a punch against Graber’s jaw with all his strength. The speed and force was incredible, even by vampire standards, but it glanced off of Graber’s chin like a bug off a windshield.

“Unnnggh!” Sky looked down at his hand, the fingers bent out in all directions. It was like hitting a lead brick inside a larger brick of concrete covered in boilerplate. Graber hadn’t even flinched. Graber made like he was about to toss Sky into orbit, but Sky broke in quickly.

“Hey, Graber!” Sky said in a falsely bright tone, struggling to speak against the gripping, massive hand on his voice box. “Nice match, huh? Ok. You win this round, how ‘bout best two out of three?”

Graber just tightened his grip.

“Mmmgh!” Schuyler groaned but kept up the banter, “Y’know, it’s not fair fighting a guy missing the top of his head. I’m not used to kicking so low.” Graber growled a little at this. Sky kept going. As long as he kept Graber mad, he wasn’t going anywhere. “But I gotta tell ya, I love the haircut. Seriously. I’m not
usually
a fan of the flat-top, but you’ve taken it to new heights, or should I say lows?”

Graber slammed Schuyler against a nearby tree and slid him upward against it until his feet were off the ground, tearing the skin off Schuyler’s shirtless back in the process.