Enlil came out of the fuzzy stage of waking up as fast as the god’s body had done everything else.
“I hope eating is next on the agenda.” Enlil had been forbidden food before anesthesia.
“You might want to wait a little bit. Just until…” Doctor Dani looked down at Enlil’s legs, and gave a shrug. The healing was already happening. What had looked crushed and misshapen before, glowed pink with health. She lifted the dressing on his chest, and looked equally pleased to see that only a faint red line remained where she’d closed him up. “Okay, fine. But if you puke, don’t call me.”
Emesh, can you acquire some food for Enlil?
Bringing it right up.
Food ordered, Marduk continued, “Do you see why we need you?” He put a hand on Dani’s shoulder. “Without your intervention, it would have taken weeks for Enlil to heal, and getting his legs on right…that might never have happened. We’ve got lots to do in the next couple days, getting ready for Kulla’s dedication of the new guest houses. Enlil would have missed that without you, but now he’ll be feasting and dancing the commala like in Stephen King’s books.”
Dani beamed. “I love that series! You know, if you clued Mr. King in on your existence, he could write a hell of a story about you guys. Think of the fodder he’d have. In hell alone with all those demons—”
“Thanks,” Marduk stopped her, “but we’ll remain anonymous.” Marduk didn’t let on that he’d dropped in on Mr. King while he was up in Bangor, Maine. Then again, Mr. King didn’t know it either.
Emesh arrived with food, just as Marduk felt the energy signature he’d been missing all day. “Tess is home.” A smile split his features that quickly turned to a frown. Instead of instantly heading to his wife’s side, he fiddled with the instruments on Dani’s tray instead. “Shit. Now I have to tell her what’s going on with her sister.”
“Huxley’s been waiting, not so patiently, too,” Enlil spoke up. “I’ve been hearing his frustration in my head since I woke up.” He looked up at Marduk. “Why don’t you bring everyone in and I’ll do a tell-all. Saying it once will make it a lot easier.
All gods and goddess to Doctor Dani’s infirmary. Huxley and witches please join us as well. Enlil is going to tell us what happened in hell.
Despite some of the gods going off to run errands or stretch their legs, all arrived within minutes, except the witches and one god.
“Has anyone seen Absu?” Marduk questioned when the black-haired god hadn’t arrived. He grasped the hand of his wife who had made her way to his side. Heads shook all around.
“The GTS is still available. I left it on while Tess was out in case she or Lahar needed us fast,” Shamash shared. The GTS was the Gods’ Transceiver Station that he and Lahar had concocted out of an old microwave and a slew of parabolic reflectors. It let the gods have far reaching communication from the T-Taj, superseding their normal ten-mile limit.
Absu, Marduk tapped in to the system. Can you hear me?
I am able to communicate with you, yes. Is there a problem of which I must be apprised?
Marduk sighed. Absu was the one god who refused to lighten up and use the current vernacular. Sometimes it was a lot to bear, being constantly reminded of how they all used to sound. If that was the extent of it, Absu would still be easy enough to take, but he seemed to have very little sense of humor.
People judged Enten, the god of cold, for being, well, cold. But at least he had a wintry sense of humor that allowed him to enjoy the pranks and practical jokes they’d all played on one another over the centuries. Not so with Absu. He never lightened up.
We’re finding out what happened in the Underworld. Enlil has returned, but without Lenore and Holly. Will you join us?
Alas, I am far afield. Prithee, inform me when I arrive home.
Sure. Okay. And as an afterthought, don’t forget Kulla’s shindig in a couple of days. He wouldn’t want you to miss his housewarming celebration.
I will be certain to mark it on my engagement calendar.
Out of anyone else’s mouth, Marduk would have taken that as a joke, but for Absu, the small book he spoke of was always in his pocket as if the sweet water god had a busy social schedule.
Marduk looked back at Enlil. “Let’s get to it. Absu won’t be joining us. Tell us exactly what happened and don’t leave anything out.” His wife’s hand trembled in his.
Enlil cleared his throat. “Do you remember when Ereshkigal took Holly to the Underworld by herself to meet Nergal?”
Heads nodded all around.
“Well, it was more than a casual visit. It seems that Nergal had some other terms up his sleeve in order for me to accompany Holly and Lenore into hell. When Holly came back, she let Lenore in on the specifics, but never confided in the rest of us. Shit. If we’d known, I’m sure we would have said no to the whole thing.”
“Yeah, something along the lines of ‘not on your fucking life, Nergal’.” Anshar growled, still close to serpent-anger.
Enlil nodded in agreement and continued, “The deal was that, as soon as we met up with Dagon, I’d be sent home and Lenore would be put in a cage in Nergal’s throne room to be his…guest, until Holly and Dagon could come to her rescue.”
Anshar growled, his eyes as black as the farthest depths of the ocean.
“Wait.” Enlil held up a hand to silence the serpent. “There are two more things you need to know.” He looked around him. “Have any of you ever seen Nergal show any sexual interest in Ereshkigal before?”
Choruses of hell no and cold bastard rang out, with this last from Enten of all people.
“Well, Nergal was p.o.’d that Tess is pregnant, so he took no chances with Holly getting knocked up in Hell. With Ereshkigal’s help, they…uh…installed a ring on Holly that would effectively keep Dagon out of…well…out.”
Marduk growled his displeasure.
“Holly said sparks flew between the two as they worked over her naked body, and it was like she wasn’t even there.”
Enlil had to have left out a lot of inflammatory details, but he understood that they should all remain as calm as possible. As it was, Tess looked like she’d be having some words with the Underworld queen next time she saw her.
“When Lenore heard this from Holly, she felt that something had been left unsolved between the two deities, and hatched a plan to get the truth out in the open. She planned to use the collar, forcing their differences to be aired. Then she was going to play one against the other hoping nature would take its course, and a little nookie would calm both of them down.”
After this mind-fuck reveal, Enlil continued his story, sparing no details of the demons, the battles, and the glowies. Then the door burst open to Angie and Addie May arriving in what could only be called a panic.
“We saw it in the bowl! That other presence…that evil lurking just outside our reach. We still can’t see what, or who it is, but it is very displeased by Lenore’s manipulations with the king and queen. We fear there is trouble brewing in the Underworld.”
“What can we do? Will they get home sssafely?” Anshar’s serpent lisped what everyone wanted to know. Marduk roared his frustration with their hands so effectively tied.
The witches turned to look at Kulla. Everyone knew, by this time, that Kulla held the pair in great disdain. He made no secret of it, yet wouldn’t reveal why. Unintimidated, the ladies pinned him with certain stares, and Angie spoke, “They will with Kulla’s help.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Dagon was still stunned it had been that easy. All those bad demons down, and now they advanced, as good as on their way to the throne room.
Lavarette’s intelligence report had been invaluable. Forearmed with the knowledge of the demon’s essence locations, the osmium blades had sliced through all the bad guys, plucking the life right out of them.
The glowies deserved their small celebration, roasting the most delectable, fat cockroaches over open flames and imbibing in the potent nectar Dagon had
shown them could be squeezed from some low-hanging roots found throughout a particular tunnel.
Since Nergal was a creature of habit and had always given them the identical six-hour intervals throughout his time in Hell, Dagon figured they had at least twenty hours before they’d encounter their next bunch of combatants. Plenty of time for the glowies to get a little buzz going and have time to recover. He also knew, from Holly’s description of Lenore’s plan for Nergal, that he needed to give his kin time to put her plan into action.
As for the source of the fermented liquid, the gods had discovered the roots quite by accident a few thousand years ago. Dagon recounted the story to Holly as she snuggled up beside him in front of the fire. “It was Enten, the winter god, who found them…”
Dagon told it, nostalgically, pausing near the end of his recollections to observe his Chosen. “Did you know that the word alcohol actually originated in ancient Mesopotamia? Sumeria, I believe…” He looked like he was ready to launch into a long historic dissertation, but Holly stopped him.
“Get back to the story.” She jiggled his knee. “Did you all get rip roaring drunk?”
“We didn’t. Too many demons needed to be defeated.” He closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of her up against him. “We saved that for our next break in the battling. Which is why,” he looked around, “I think it’s safe for our glowie friends to have some fun. We should have plenty of time before any other danger comes lurking.”
Holly cuddled closer. Even taking a pass on the alcohol, due to the fact that she was a recovering alcoholic, she was still dead tired. A little nap while the glowies celebrated would be perfect.
****
Something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong. Holly struggled to come fully awake. Something hot passed over her face, something suffocating. She groped around dazedly. Where was Dagon? The floor suddenly was not supporting her body. What was happening? She tried to scream, but the hot mass over her face made it impossible. Without warning, she became airborne. Whatever or whoever it was that had her, they carried her away, and she’d bet everything she held dear that it wasn’t the good guys.
Dagon! Holly attempted to contact him with her mind. Dagon, can you hear me? She received no response. She tried the glowies next. Lavarette! Minrella! Slaggat! It’s Holly. Something’s wrong.
She finally heard a sleepy reply. Female, but she had no idea who. Too tired. Going back to sleep.
No, wake up! This is Holly, Dagon’s girlfr…Chosen. Something’s happening to me and I’m afraid for Dagon. I can’t reach him.
Finally her panic must have filtered through the alcoholic haze fogging the glowie’s brain. Fine. I’m coming, I’m coming. She pictured one of the glowies coming to her feet. I’m just going to see…hey. Confusion suddenly reigned in the glowie’s head. Holly could feel it. Where are you?
That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Someone is taking me away…flying me away. I can’t see where I’m going because there’s something over my face.
Lavarette, wake up! Holly recognized Minrella’s voice. Dagon and Holly are gone! Look.
What do you see? Holly was desperate to know what was happening.
Lavarette’s voice now filled her head. You and Dagon are missing, and your backpack just floated out the door. There was a brief pause. Hang on, we’re following it.
Thank God. If they’d been captured by invisible demons, at least the glowies had become aware of it and were poised, ready to come to the rescue. The purloined backpack still contained some sedatives and her osmium blade.
When she heard Lavarette had witnessed it flying, she heaved a sigh of relief. If they could follow and retrieve it, they would be well armed. Surely with osmium, their new battle experience, and their sheer numbers, the glowies could defend against this new threat.
After several minutes of swooping and dipping, her body roughly dropped and buffeted along a rock-strewn floor. Holly thought she might be sick from the ride. She was thankful that her jeans took the brunt of the abuse, but she’d still be scraping bits of detritus out of her feet where she had long since lost her sneakers. She tried connecting to Dagon again.
Dagon, can you hear me?
Still nothing. She chewed her lip and tried not to cry. That wouldn’t help anything.
As abruptly as she’d been taken, she was dropped carelessly onto her backside. She pushed the curls out of her face and looked up, seeing no kidnappers, but watched as Dagon’s limp body seemingly attached itself to the wall opposite her using thick chains. She shook her head again as her backpack came sailing through a small doorway that was no more than four feet high and three feet across.
She continued watching in awe as the pack opened and her osmium bladed knife floated out. She screamed as it started toward Dagon.
“No!” She lunged in his direction, ignoring all of her cuts and scrapes, intent only on keeping the object away from his bound form. She almost had it in her grasp before something heavy crashed into her and threw her backward, knocking the breath out of her, causing her to land hard against the far wall.
As quickly as the force attacked, it disappeared. Holly whimpered because, apparently she was not the threat. Dagon was. She watched in horror as the knife continued to make its way toward him. She keened as it sliced a deep gash in first one wrist, where it was shackled to the wall, then the other.
Holly was horrified, her thoughts chaotic, but she was no fool. This attack was not the same as all the others, which had been guided by some perverse set of gentleman’s rules used in demon encounters. Nergal was either retaliating furiously for whatever Lenore had done to him, or there was a different force at work here. Whatever it was, Holly had to have to figure it out…and fast.
She racked her brain. If this attack wasn’t about an inane race to the throne room, there was only one other thing it could be. Someone or something stood to gain from taking them out. Think, Holly. Only two things she carried might be of value. One was the empty amulet that Ereshkigal had given her, allowing passage in and out of Hell. That would certainly come in very handy for any demon. The other was the idol strung around her neck. If Nergal had wanted either, he was powerful enough to take them at any time. It had to be someone else behind this attack.
Holly thought quickly. The amulet still rested in the deep, zippered, thigh pocket of her jeans; the necklace would have to go in the other. Even though her captors remained invisible to her, she hoped their attention was all on Dagon. She hunched over, making noises as if being sick, and surreptitiously shrugged the thong over her head. Her fingers fumbled with the zipper, and it was all she could do to stuff the large item into her pocket. Angling it as far as she could, she made it fit. Holly dragged the hair back off her face and took in what seemed to be, but was not, an empty room. Moving the idol was her only hope. She crossed her fingers that demons didn’t know how to work zippers.
Dagon was coming around. To approach him again would have her thrown back for a second time, but she skittered forward a slow inch at a time while Dagon’s head lolled around and he fought to focus his eyes.
“Holly.” He groaned. His head came up, and she could see the large, healing wound on the side of his head where he had been knocked out. They hit you with something, she sent to Dagon then glanced at his wrists, already knowing what she would see. The wounds there were not healing. They had been deliberately made with the osmium blade, so that Dagon wouldn’t have enough strength to pull his hands free from the chains in the wall. Damn them.
Dagon’s eyes connected with hers. He must not have liked what he saw when he checked her over. “Bastards!” he yelled, but with horrifyingly little strength. His eyes had turned dark. “Hurt her again and I will kill you all with a slow and painful death.”
Without warning, five heretofore invisible beings glimmered into material form. Holly choked back a hysterical laugh. Could they look any more like the cartoon friendly ghost if they tried? The demons had big heads and balloon-shaped hands, and
their bodies ended in a telltale, trailing extremity. What wasn’t so friendly were their gaping mouths with pointy teeth that looked big and sharp enough to rip someone’s head off. Holly shivered. She prayed they didn’t have that in mind, but dammit, she knew this wasn’t a social visit. Holly hoped that the glowies were standing by. They’d said they would follow the pack.
Lavarette, are you there? Holly reached out once again to the warrior female.
I am, along with a hundred of our best people…but we have a problem.
Holly groaned. That was not what she wanted to hear.
There is a demon guarding the entrance to a very small doorway leading to your position. There is only room enough for one of our people to engage the fiend at a time, and even with an osmium blade, we’ve found we cannot make any headway. The being excretes a poisonous, repellent gas that puts us to sleep. We were barely able to drag the first of our rescue team away to keep him from being lethally bitten.
The gas must have been how they overpowered us to begin with, Holly sent back. Lavarette, beware. Even if you get by that one, there must be more. There are five in the small cave with us. Holly sat back in shock. Damn, we are so screwed.
Don’t think that way. It was Dagon’s voice, weak but comforting, coming into her head.
What are we going to do? He was in the most vulnerable position, but he was a god, after all. Who knew what he was capable of?
I’m going to contact Ereshkigal. She’ll help us.
Holly waited one minute, then two, racked with impatience. Well?
Something is blocking my transmission. I’ve tried Nergal too, with no luck. I don’t understand it. I’ve always been able to get the ear of either the king or queen. There was a change in his voice as he attempted to keep her calm. Why don’t we see what these demons intend? They may just be a diversionary tactic to give Nergal longer access to Lenore…or he’s trying to scare us. Either way, they’ll let us loose eventually.
Dagon hadn’t had enough awake time to process what was really happening. She hated to burst his bubble, but he needed to keep his guard high. Didn’t you say your King Nergal always played by the same rules?
Going Deep Page 27