I fell asleep. I couldn’t believe I fell asleep. Shabiri kicked me awake. “Oh my God, how long was I out?” I scrambled to my feet.
“Only a few minutes. I knew if I didn’t let you, you’d be no good to me. You were exhausted.”
“We have to go.”
“No kidding.”
I wiped my eyes, threw my filthy hair off my face, and set out after her. It must have been my Chosen Host strength, because otherwise I doubt I would have been able to take another step. We’d already come a long way and there was still a long way to go. Sometimes it was steep, and sometimes it was just a long switchback of a trail, zig-zagging up the incline. We scrambled over scree, losing our footing a few times. I helped Shabiri but more often than not, and she offered me a hand. It was truly the strangest journey I’d ever been on, and that was saying something these days.
I stopped near the top of the mountain and looked back. We’d climbed several thousand feet. The valley below stretched as far as the eye could see. The sky was a sickly yellow now with black edges like paint splashed on a canvas by a lazy artist. I could see smoldering volcanoes in the far distance with a haze of smoke lingering just above their peaks. It reminded me of Erasmus’ smoky shoulders whenever he was agitated...or turned on.
Another volcano just at the horizon was erupting, spewing glowing bits of rock and lava high into the air. The smoke churning from its funnel was black with lightning spearing out of it. Dante didn’t know the half of it.
What was especially strange was the lack of people. Or demons like Shabiri, I supposed. It truly was desolation. The two kinds of creatures I had seen so far were without reason, just like animals. And though they were fearsome, I feared still more any intelligent beings that might be watching us. And I knew—with the Booke’s knowledge tickling at my brain—that they were.
“How far now, Shabiri?”
“Down this mountain we’ll come to a land bridge. In one direction is the lair of the Powers That Be. In the other lies…Him.”
“Is it…is it far? How many days?”
“Days? There are no days here. One hour leads on to another. Time is very different in the Netherworld.”
“What are you saying? Do you mean that an hour here is not an hour back home?”
“I’m saying Time has no meaning. Days might have passed in your world.”
“What? No! It might be Halloween already? What is the Booke doing back there?”
“You’re right to worry. Just because it’s floating beside you doesn’t mean it isn’t releasing nasty beasties back home. Just consider it not your problem.”
“But it is my problem!”
“My dear, there’s not a thing you can do about it now.”
I looked back once more. She was right. I was as far from home as I could possibly be. I had to believe that Doc and Seraphina and Nick and Jolene…and even Doug’s gang were taking care of things. Jeff would see to my shop and all would have to carry on without me. For good.
I took a deep breath. “Let’s go.”
* * *
Getting down the other side of the mountain was somehow not any easier than getting up it. The constant pressure on my knees as I walked in a crouching gait seemed to hurt my legs even more. And it was more dangerous trying not to slip downward facing that way.
The landscape hadn’t changed. Except for a grayish river moving sluggishly below, snaking between the hills. I couldn’t smell it, but it sure looked like it was made of something unpleasant. “Why is everything so awful here?”
“One man’s awful is another man’s… You’re right, it is awful here. I have no idea why this world was created as it was. Perhaps it was beautiful once, and He decided to destroy it all in a fit of anger.”
She didn’t like saying his name. I guessed I didn’t blame her. “He has that much control here?”
“No one really knows. We just assume. It could just as well have been the Ancient Ones.”
“Do you consider it strange…or just normal?”
“I guess I never really thought much about it.”
“You are a pretty strange creature yourself. You’re just as intelligent as—” The look she gave me dared me to finish that sentence. “You’re intelligent,” I said, switching tracks, “so why would you put up with this? Maybe there are others who want a change.”
She laughed. “Are you trying to form an insurrection of the Netherworld? Oh, He’s going to love you.”
“I wasn’t. I just think if you don’t like something, then people should band together to make a change. Or demons should. Whatever.”
“What a unique view you have of life. Civilizations don’t always work that way. They come and go. The Babylonians disappeared, absorbed by the other tribes and civilizations around them. Same with the Hittites and Jebusites. Change happens all the time.”
“You’re citing history and cultures on my world. What about your world?”
She didn’t say anything. If all demons were narcissists like she said, then it was easier to flee than to stand up for something and maybe get cut down. It could have been that there had been an insurrection…and this place was the result. Looking around at the desolation, perhaps I didn’t blame her or the others who lived here.
We came to a flat spot. I took the canteen from off my shoulder and tipped it up to my lips. But there was only a trickle left. I was about to lower it when a shower of water poured from the canteen, soaking me. I stoppered it, wiped my face, and glanced sidelong at Shabiri. “You think that’s funny?”
“I do, actually.” She was smiling and so was I, until her grin suddenly vanished. She froze. I was about to ask, but she shushed me with a flicking hand gesture.
And then I heard it too. A low growl from…somewhere. The echoes made it impossible to know from where it came.
We both searched, walking in a circle. “If that’s what I think it is,” she whispered, “we are in big trouble.”
“What do you think it is?”
She merely stared at me, looking suddenly pale. Okay, now I didn’t want to know.
“What should we do?”
“I don’t know if there’s anything we can do.” She sniffed the wind like Erasmus used to do and grabbed my arm. “Let’s keep going. Do you see that land bridge down there? We’re heading to the left.”
I knew she told me this in case she couldn’t go with me. In case she was…
I was too scared to speak, so I just hurried down the trail.
I kept hearing the low growls. If it was something Shabiri wasn’t prepared to deal with, then what chance did we have? I had the spear—and I clutched it tight—but would it do any good against…whatever was stalking us?
We hurried down the incline between shiny obsidian rock walls. When we were almost to that black marble land bridge, I saw a shadow cast against the glassy rock face. I turned and wished I hadn’t.
It made no sense. “It has three heads,” was the stupid nonsense that came out of my mouth.
“Very good, meat girl. Gold star for being able to count to three.”
It was a very large black dog and it had three heads. Something tickled the back of my memory. Something from ancient mythology about a guardian of the underworld.
“Cerberus,” I muttered.