Ruby Shadows (47 page)

“
You need not fear about
that,” Laish said briskly. “Tonight I shall be committing an act
that will bring me firmly back into balance.”

I wondered what in the world he was talking
about. Was he planning to do something evil? Or good? Or what? And
was I going to be involved?

Just then I reached the bottom of the stairs
and Bobbin rushed up to me.

“
Good morning, my Lady
Gwendolyn,” he squeaked, sounding out of breath. “Master Belial
said you were leaving this morning and I wanted to see you
off.”

“
Hello, Bobbin—that’s very
sweet of you.” I tried to smile at the little imp though I couldn’t
help feeling a little annoyed. Had Laish been going to say anything
else about tonight? Should I be worried?

But Laish had obviously heard our exchange.
He and Belial were already coming around to the foot of the
staircase.

“
Hello,
mon ange.
You’re looking
refreshed.” He smiled at me and took my hand. “Are you ready to
resume our journey?”

“
As ready as I’ll ever
be.” I smiled at him, trying to put my fears behind me. After last
night, how could I doubt him again? He had seen me in the Mirror of
the Eye—he
had
to
care for me. There was no way he was pretending or trying to fool
me into trusting him for some nefarious purpose—was
there?

It’s all right,
I told myself.
He was
probably just trying to make Belial feel better when he said he was
going to do something to restore his balance. It’s probably
nothing.

“
Good morning, Master
Belial,” I said to the old demon, coolly. I hadn’t forgotten his
words to Laish—that he should have left me for the
Skitterlings.

Belial gave me a forced-looking smile and
nodded.

“
Good morning—you look
lovely my dear.”

“
Thank you.” I turned to
Laish. “Is Kurex saddled and ready to go?”

“
Indeed he is—and very
ready to be off.”

We turned to go but I felt a tugging at the
hem of my traveling cloak. Turning back, I saw it was Bobbin,
looking hopefully up at me.

“
Yes, Bobbin,” I said,
bending down to talk to him. “What is it?”

“
I got you something, my
Lady Gwendolyn.” He’d been holding one hand behind his back and now
he brought out a beautiful flower with gold and orange and red
petals that curled outward, rather like an orchid.

“
Oh, Bobbin—that’s
gorgeous,” I said, taking it from him. “Thank you!”

“
It’s from one of the
flame-flower plants that grow by the Lake of Fire,” he explained,
grinning shyly. “I have a cousin who lives there—he brought me one
of the plants to tend. They only bloom when you put them in a hot
enough fire.”

“
Was that you, teasing the
watch-dragon this morning, Bobbin?” Belial demanded, glaring down
at the little imp. “Were you trying to get it to breathe fire to
make your blasted plant bloom?”

The little imp scuffed at the floor
nervously with one hoof.

“
I only wanted something
nice to give to the pretty lady before she left, Master. Please,
don’t punish me.”

“
No, don’t punish him,” I
said, patting his curly little head. “Don’t you dare—he was just
being sweet.”

Belial glowered and I began to think there
was something sinister behind his kindly old demon façade. But he
only nodded his head briefly.

“
As my Lady
wishes.”

“
Thank you.” Leaning down,
I gave little Bobbin a kiss on the cheek before straightening
up.

“
Oh, my Lady!” he
squeaked, his face glowing as he clapped his little hand to the
cheek I’d kissed. “Thank you—thank you! I shall never wash my face
again!”

“
You most certainly will!”
Belial growled. “Come back here, Bobbin!”

But the little imp was
already scampering away, his hand still held firmly to his cheek,
his little hooves
tap-tap-tapping
across the marble floor.

I turned to go with Laish and saw that he
had a most unusual expression on his face. He was staring at me
curiously with a little half-smile tugging at the corner of his
mouth.

“
What is it?” I asked as
we walked out of the huge skull and into the courtyard where Kurex
was stamping restlessly.

“
Nothing.” He shook his
head. “It is only that I still cannot understand the affinity the
creatures of Hell have for you.”

“
Not all of them,” I
pointed out. “This is the first time I’ve kissed anyone but you
since I got here but I’ve been attacked something like three or
four times.”

“
More like five or six,”
he corrected, helping me mount the horse. “But still, there are
some creatures here that seem drawn to you—myself
included.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know—maybe it has to do
with me being a witch.”

“
Maybe.” But he sounded
doubtful. “At any rate, let us be going. We still need to stop at
The Hoof before we can cross the barrier.”

“
Why are we stopping
there?” I asked as he guided Kurex back out onto the cobblestone
road. The big horse’s shoes clopped loudly against the stone and
echoed off the bone buildings on either side.

“
You’ll see. It won’t take
long.” Laish sounded grim for some reason but I didn’t ask
why.

We passed through the busy town where, as
before, everyone seemed to be going somewhere in a hurry, with a
distracted frown on his or her face. I wondered if anyone ever
smiled in this circle of Hell. Certainly, it was much more pleasant
than most of the other circles I had visited, but while nobody was
being tortured, they didn’t seem to be enjoying themselves either.
Maybe they all had a low level depression or something—that in
itself would be a kind of torture, even if not the obvious
kind.

It wasn’t long before we
stopped in front of an enormous hoof—seriously, it was as big as a
two story house. And that was what it had been turned into—well, a
two story tavern, anyway. There was a wooden sign hanging up
outside which simply said,
The
Hoof,
and demons and lost souls of all
descriptions were going in and out of it, presumably catching a
quick drink before they headed back to whatever work they were
doing.

“
Stay here on Kurex’s
back,” Laish told me, pulling the horse to a halt and swinging off.
“I will only be a moment.”

“
Why can’t I come in?” I
asked, frowning. “I’d like to see inside.”

“
It would not be safe for
you.” He frowned back. “Do you remember that you promised to do as
I said from now on?”

“
I remember I said
I’d
listen
to
you.” I sighed. “Fine, go inside. It’s too early in the day for a
glass of wine or beer anyway.”

He grinned. “As to that, I do not think you
would like the libations served at The Hoof. The ale has dragon’s
bile in it and the wine is crushed from grapes watered by the blood
of the innocent.”

“
What? Eww!” I exclaimed.
“That’s awful!”

“
No, that’s Hell.” He
cocked an eyebrow at me. “Surely you are not surprised after
everything else you have witnessed here?”

“
I guess not.” I sighed.
“Look, just try not to take too long, okay? It makes me nervous to
be out here without you.”

I didn’t like admitting that but I couldn’t
help it. Every time we were separated, bad things seemed to happen.
And I’d had enough awful adventures in the past few days to last me
a lifetime.

“
It will be the work of a
moment. I already see the one I am here to meet.” He nodded at a
huge demon with the head of a bull and the body of a man, leaning
against the outer wall of The Hoof. The creature—I guessed it was a
Minotaur—had a long black box under its arm. When it saw Laish, it
nodded back and lumbered into the tavern.

Laish followed it and I wondered what in the
world they were talking about in there. I didn’t have long to
wonder, though, because in a matter of minutes Laish came out with
the long black box I’d seen the Minotaur holding.

“
What’s that?” I asked as
he tucked it into Kurex’s saddle bags and swung up behind me
again.

“
Insurance,” he said
shortly. “Come, it’s time to pass through the barrier.”

“
Where is it?” I
asked.

“
Just ahead at the end of
this road. You cannot see it, of course, but in a matter of moments
we will pass through and be in the middle of the Sunless
Sea.”

“
In the
middle
of it?” I felt a
surge of fear. “Now, just hold on a minute,” I said, turning in the
saddle to look at Laish. “All this time I thought we were going to
be on the shore or the beach or something like that. Nobody said
anything about in the
middle
of the ocean—I wasn’t exactly on the high school
swim team, you know. And—”

But just at that moment we reached the end
of the street and the entire city of Dis completely vanished. The
bright daylight turned abruptly to night and Kurex’s hooves were
thunking on sand instead of clopping on cobblestones.

“
What in the world?” I
looked around, bewildered.

“
No, what in
Hell
,” Laish corrected
me. “This,
mon ange,
is the Sunless Sea, the sixth level of Hell.”

“
But…” I shook my head,
not understanding. “All I see is sand—where’s the
water?”

“
Look up.” He gestured
directly above our heads.

I did as he said and nearly screamed.

About twenty feet straight up a massive
stretch of black water was flowing. Actually, it was all around us,
I saw. We were surrounded by water which was held back somehow by
an invisible barrier.

The closest thing to it I could imagine was
some of the underwater rides and tunnels in Sea World, where you
walk through a clear plastic tube and see the sharks and fish
swimming all around you. But when you go in one of those tunnels,
you can see the plastic or plexiglass or whatever it is they use to
build the tunnel surrounding you, keeping the water out. Here,
there was nothing—nothing I could see, anyway. The water was just
there, flowing silently all around us, with no apparent reason for
not filling the space we were in and drowning us.

“
It’s Infernal Magic which
holds the waters back,” Laish answered my unspoken question. “Do
not worry, Gwendolyn—we are quite safe.”

“
Are we?” I was still
scanning the “roof” of the long tunnel we were in as Kurex kept on
walking. My memory of the tunnels at Sea World was renewed as I saw
a Great White shark pass directly overhead—only this was a shark
the size of a school bus!

“
What the Hell?” I
muttered, looking up at it.

“
A Megaladon,” Laish
remarked. “Extinct in the Mortal Realm now for millions of years.
Yet it thrives here, along with many of its brethren.”

“
Like
that
thing?” I pointed to something
that was even bigger than the enormous shark. It had a long,
pointed snout a little like a crocodile filled with razor sharp
teeth. It could have used me for a toothpick or swallowed me
without even realizing it—it was that big.

“
A Mosasaur,” Laish said
laconically. “One of the largest predators every to stalk the
ocean. I remember when the depths were full of such beasts—long
before the Creator turned his attention to man.”

“
So you were around during
the age of the dinosaurs?” I couldn’t help staring at him. He’d
talked more than once about mortals having such a short life span
we were like moths or butterflies but it hadn’t really sunk in for
me. Somehow knowing that Laish had been around to see these ancient
beasts roam the planet seemed to put everything into
perspective.

He gave me a mocking little smile.

“
Now don’t tell me you’ll
let a little thing like age difference get in the way of our
relationship.”

Since I didn’t know exactly what our
relationship was, I didn’t know how to answer that.

“
It’s just weird, that’s
all,” I muttered. “I—oh, look—Nessie!”

For just to the right side of us, so close
to the invisible barrier I felt like I could go stroke its broad,
paddle-like fins, was a creature that looked exactly like what the
Lock Ness Monster is supposed to be.

“
A long necked
Plesiosaur,” Laish said. “I did hear that one of them had escaped
back through the dimensional gateway to the Mortal
Realm.”

“
Really?” I couldn’t take
my eyes off the creature. It was huge, of course, but also sleek
and graceful. It had a long, snaky neck and a small head with large
black eyes. I knew it was crazy but I wanted to pet it. “Can we
touch them?” I asked Laish. “I mean, can we reach through the magic
barrier?”

“
You could,” he said
dryly. “If you didn’t mind losing a hand…or an arm.
Look.”

The Nessie I had been admiring turned its
head and stared at us, as though just noticing we were there. Then
it spread its jaws and dived right for us, aiming its entire huge
body like a torpedo.