“As far as I could tell that horror has no sense of humor at all.”
“You haven’t been around Leviathan long enough.”
“Look at you,” Lilith said. “Speaking in contractions now. Maybe being in such close proximity to us has done you some good, after all.”
Beleth, as was its wont when mocked, fell into a sullen silence. Both women, exchanging a glance, took advantage of its tactical withdrawal to launch themselves through the cave mouth, hitting the downward slope with long strides.
The bats kept their distance. Perhaps they too understood the dreadful transformation going on inside Emma, and wanted no part of it. Perhaps their echolocation fastened on Emma’s talons, recognizing a predator of immense size.
Occasionally a shaft of amber sunlight shone directly down from a hole in the rock, through which, it would appear, the bats flew in search of nocturnal food. But these soon disappeared with the steep downward pitch of the cave.
“This cave is going downward too quickly,” Lilith said. “It’s no normal sea cave.”
“No, it isn’t.” Beleth had returned. “It’s anything but.”
“Then what is it?”
“A passageway,” the Power said.
“To what?” Lilith asked.
“If I tell you—”
“You’re going to bargain? Now?”
“If I tell you,” Beleth went on, unperturbed by Lilith’s outburst, “will you teach me strategy?”
Lilith was brought up short. Emma stopped as well, turned back to her.
“You’re serious,” Lilith said.
“Never more so,” Beleth answered her.
“Learning strategy could take weeks, if not months.”
“Not for me,” Beleth said with such conviction that they had no choice but to believe.
“Emma, what d’you say?”
“I say, what do we have to lose?”
Lilith grunted, then nodded. “You have a deal.”
Relief flooded Emma’s face. “This passageway leads to the netherworld. The Hollow Lands. It’s a place without time or geography as humans know it. It’s the place colonized by Leviathan when the portal between worlds was unsealed, the inner keep of his castle.”
Beleth looked at Lilith with its dark eyes. “We must proceed with caution.”
“Time is running out,” Lilith reminded him.
“No one knows that better than we do.” It was the first time Beleth had referred to itself and its host as a shared entity. Lilith marked the moment well. “But we do not want to go blundering into the danger without—”
“A strategy,” Lilith said, her eyes alight. “Now I understand.”
It was Emma who smiled at her—her beloved Emma. “Time to strategize,” she said. “And I think Beleth’s tactical skills will serve us in good stead.”
Lilith nodded. “First lesson, Beleth. Battles are not won by strategy alone.”
*
THE LION’S head stared straight ahead, its stony eyes focused on a future when it would become a war mount. The horse’s torso, wicked spikes extending from the fetlocks and cannons of its four legs, already seemed flecked with the sweat of battle, a trick of the Hollow Lands’ eerie light. Its serpent’s tail, scaled and mailed, curled behind it.
Leviathan approached the Orus, placed a hideously malformed hand on its diamond-shaped chest, lifted it immediately, traced the triangle-circle-square engraved there with the tip of one of his ebon talons. The sigil turned briefly red, as if it were made of fire, then just as quickly subsided into what might have been ink.
At once, the chest of the Orus opened and out they slid, slimy as babes from a mother’s spread thighs: Murmur, the mesmerist; Raum, the master of lies; Phenex, the Scryer; and, lastly, Verrine, the Reaver, King of the Four Thrones.
Three sets of leathery wings each, eyes that winked and moved about as if of their own volition. Broad of shoulder, massive of chest, strong as a dozen Oruses, these elite Fallen were made for war. They thirsted for battle as others thirsted for air or water.
They were the perfect killing machines, these four Thrones. The personification of Death, they were as hideous and malformed as the nightmares of a psychotic mind. That was Leviathan’s opinion anyway, the only opinion that mattered. He smiled at them, but that smile was tissue thin. How he despised them.
46
The Hollow Lands: Present Day
“CONRAD COULDN’T FIND IT; KAMAR DOESN’T KNOW WHAT happened to it,” Ayla said. “What makes you think you’ll be able to find the stolen apple?”
“Kamar said Conrad knew Chynna hid it somewhere in the Hollow Lands,” Bravo replied.
“Yes, but was Conrad right?”
Bravo was silent as they picked their way down to the lowest reaches of the sea cave. He inhaled deeply. There should have been moisture by now, perhaps even seepage here and there, for they were now far below the surface of the Mediterranean, but the rock walls were perfectly dry. No trace of salt or accumulated minerals was apparent, either.
He had much to mull over, such as what lay ahead and how he was going to find what amounted to a needle in a haystack. As they forged ahead, their way dimly lit by a phosphorescent vein running more or less horizontally through the rock, he was trying to put himself in the mind-set of his great-great-grandmother. He assumed Kamar had told the truth about Chynna stealing the apple that had been in the Balbis’ safekeeping. After all, the theft fit in with Chynna running away from Arwad so precipitously, changing her name, mating with the Grigori—the Fallen Angel. She was a sorceress of extraordinary powers—Conrad had told him that much about her. Perhaps she knew that the golden apple would protect her from the Grigori. That hypothesis certainly fit the scenario he had pieced together. But given all that, why would Chynna stash the apple down here? Perhaps she had done it just before she had petitioned the convent to take her in as a novitiate. But, according to Conrad, she was already with the Grigori’s child—the Nephilim Gideon, Conrad’s father.
Bravo stopped abruptly. They had come to the end of the cave—if cave it actually was, rather than an access tunnel to the netherworld, as Kamar claimed. An unholy glow emanated from just around the last and sharpest turning.
“Are you ready?” Bravo said. And without waiting for an answer: “Here we go.”
*
WITH A bloodcurdling shriek, Emma went down on her knees, doubled over. Moments before, Beleth had let out a groan that spoke both of pain and of recognition.
At once, Lilith knelt beside Emma. She grasped her shoulders, which shook along with the rest of her body, as if she were in the grip of a ferocious ague. But it wasn’t an ague she was in the grip of, or any other earthly disease. She was in the grip of something else altogether.
For the past forty minutes, Emma and Lilith had been tutoring Beleth in the art of strategy. As it happened, both women had read Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and all of Prince Machiavelli’s works. Lilith had knowledge of much more, and they had spent the time fruitfully. Beleth hadn’t been exaggerating; he was a quick learner, extrapolating one stratagem into others, some of which neither woman had considered.
Now, though, the crisis had arrived, somehow ahead of schedule. Had the moon risen already? Lilith wondered as she pulled Emma’s damp hair back from her forehead. Impossible. The sun had not yet set when they entered the cave and encountered the bats. So many hours could not have passed.
She began to stroke Emma’s back, and immediately let out a yelp of alarm. A set of wings were growing from between her lover’s shoulder blades. Though they were only one pair, unlike the last time, these stumps were far thicker, sturdier, presaging wings of colossal span.
“Emma! Oh, Emma!” she cried. “Talk to me.”
Instead, Emma raised her head. Lilith’s heart gave a painful lurch in her chest. Emma’s eyes were no longer human. They were as two faceted rubies set into her sockets. Neither iris nor pupil could be discerned. And then with a new wave of horror that made her
retch, Lilith saw that each facet was, in fact, a complete eye.
“Beleth!” Lilith cried. “Stop this! You must stop it!”
Emma’s mouth opened and Beleth’s growl rose up. “Pull us to our feet.” Lilith did as she was told. “We must get to the guardroom as quickly as possible.”
“The guardroom?” Lilith said stupidly.
“Yes, yes.” There was a knife-edge of panic to Beleth’s voice that caused Lilith to quake. “I’ll guide you. It isn’t far, but we have very little time.”
But it was far—at least it seemed that way to Lilith, who was subject to Beleth’s spit orders interspersed with Emma’s piteous screams, as if she was being torn apart.
“She is,” Beleth said, “literally,” when she voiced her fear.
Through chambers big and small, down twisting corridors they stumbled. With each step Emma grew heavier, because either Lilith’s strength was seeping out of her or whatever Emma was becoming weighed far more than she did. Lilith shuddered at the thought, kept on putting one foot in front of the other, staggering, pushing off her heels to keep their forward momentum. Once, she almost fell in her exhaustion, but she knew that if she did she might never get up again. So she gritted her teeth and kept on going. Sweat ran down her face, into her eyes, stinging, distorting her vision.
At last, they came upon an immense chamber. It appeared totally devoid of life, but at the same time Lilith could swear she heard a rustling coming from every side, as if they were passing through a field of long grass. As they moved, she heard an accompanying sound, somewhere beyond the rustling—the gurgle of a brook or stream. Then she spotted it, far off to her right, a dark crevice, as if the rock floor had cracked open. Beyond, she could dimly make out any number of doorways leading off in different directions.
“To the left now,” Beleth said. His voice had turned slurred and halting. “Left!”
She found the opening in the wall, passed through it, found herself in a smallish chamber with a low ceiling. Unlike all the other chambers she had seen, this one was filled with thick iron racks bolted to the walls. The racks contained what looked like weapons, though she couldn’t be sure; most of them were unfamiliar to her. There were also great iron rings hammered into the stone at two -and three-foot intervals, massive chains of iron and bronze and some black metal she could not identify. In all, it looked like a prison cell, or perhaps, now that she had a better look around, a torture chamber.
“The chains,” Beleth said with some difficulty.
Lilith brought them close. “Which ones?”
“Bronze.” Beleth gasped, as if in terrible pain. And then as almost a sigh, “Bronze, bronze, bronze.”
Setting Emma gently down against the wall, Lilith took up the one set of bronze chains. They were very heavy.
“Now what?”
“Wrap them around us.”
“What?”
“Tightly,” Beleth said. “So we cannot slip the bonds.”
“Are you crazy? This is your solution?”
“It’s the only solution,” Beleth said. “Listen to me. Soon the beast will be here in full force. If we cannot be saved before then the thing that is coming must be imprisoned.”
“With these?”
“Yes. The bronze will bind it. The bronze will neutralize its power. The bronze will protect you.”
“But it won’t protect Emma, will it?”
“Nor me.”
“Then I—”
“Do as I say!” Beleth’s shout was so loud, so full of rage, that Lilith jumped. “It’s a strategic move.”
As if in a dream from which she could not awake, Lilith set about doing as it said. She wound the chain around and around her beloved’s body, drew it tight as she could. At Beleth’s terse direction she passed one end through the closest iron ring. And all the while, those ghastly compound eyes watched her with singular concentration, as if marking her out for a vengeful death. At one end of the chain was a large bronze padlock and key of the same metal. With shaking hands, Lilith passed the u-shaped locking bar through two links of the chain, snapped it to.
“There. It’s done.”
“Now go,” Beleth said. “Find a way to save us.”
“But I don’t know—”
“Go! Just go!”
At last Beleth’s meaning penetrated her numb mind. It wanted her gone before the transformation had gone far enough that she would no longer recognize Emma. Blindly, she instinctively grabbed the first weapon she recognized—a war hammer with a steel haft and a solid bronze head. Stumbling out of the cell, tears streaming down her face, her heart breaking, she began her search for the impossible.
*
“WE’VE BEEN here before,” Bravo said.
“Under Malta.” Ayla nodded. “The place with the underground river.”
“Where I found the apple Conrad hid.” They were moving forward, through the vast, eerily lit space larger than the interior of the largest cathedral.
“Surely this can’t be the same place.”
“Kamar said the Hollow Lands were without time or geography. Who knows where we are, really.” He pointed the way forward. “The best way to find out is to look for the Sphinx.”
“Do you think Chynna hid it in its mouth?”
“I have no idea, but the Sphinx is the best place to get our bearings.”
“Considering its size, finding it shouldn’t be difficult.”
And yet it was. The netherworld was filled with numberless chambers, interconnected with corridors that twisted and turned in the most peculiar and dizzying ways. Sometimes they seemed to be heading deeper, until all at once they looked behind them to see that they had actually ascended. Other times, they seemed to be advancing along a wall, rather than the ground.
Guided by the whispered voice of his grandfather, Bravo never lost his way. Nevertheless, it was a very long way from here to there.
*
THE SUN was swimming in bloodred water. Kamar sat on the porch of her house, Haya on her lap, enclosed within her mother’s embrace.
“Where are our guests?” Haya said in her high, piping voice.
“They have moved on.” Kamar watched the sun continue to sink. “We were an oasis for them. An oasis in a very large desert.”
“How large, Mama?”
“From here to the moon and back, little one.”
Haya threw her head back against her mother’s bosom to look at the sky. “That’s a very long way,” she said solemnly.
“Yes,” Kamar replied, “it is.”
For a time, nothing more was said. There was just the lapping of the wavelets, the creaking of the boats, the coarse laughter of the fishermen, the crackle of a fire out on the shingle. Cigarette smoke and broiling fish. Talk of the endless war on the mainland, boys who had died, men who had returned maimed, permanently scarred inside and out. Every once in a while a drone passed by overhead, streaking eastward toward the coast. Lightning flashes and then the dull booming, distorted by distance and the slow churn of the sea.
The fire and the laughter were evidence of a celebration. Kamar knew the fishermen were celebrating the death of her husband. Though they feared him, no one liked him. He and the fanatics he had recruited had brought the misery of death and plunder to Arwad, and for this he could not be forgiven. Now he and his followers were gone, drowned at sea. Cause for joyous festivities. Kamar did not begrudge them their relief; she was relieved herself. The reason for her marriage had passed. She was done with Ismail before he had left on his latest foray.
Haya stirred in her arms. “I liked them, Mama. They were like fish who came from the sea.”
Kamar laughed. “Yes, they were, little one.” But her laughter was short-lived. The sun was drowning. Soon enough the moon would rise.
47
The Hollow Lands: Present Day
“THANOS!”
“The fourth Sphinx! Bravo, could it be?”
The Sphinx loomed over them, black as a moonless ni
ght. Stars winked along its rippling obsidian flanks, its mouth open in a silent roar, but its great eyes were just stone, blind, aloof, and indifferent.
“It must be.” Bravo, clambering onto the plinth and thence up to the Sphinx’s colossal shoulder. “There it is, engraved behind its left ear. Ayla, we’ve found Thanos!”
“And the fourth artifact!” she said from down below.
Reaching over, Bravo inserted his hand into the Sphinx’s mouth, felt around the entire cavity.
“No apple,” he said. “Nothing but dust.”
“If it’s not there, where could it be?”
He descended the great beast, jumped off the plinth, stood beside Ayla. A worried expression on his face. “I don’t know. This is wholly unexpected. Clearly, something’s gone wrong.”
At that moment, a figure appeared in the periphery of their vision. The odd, chthonic light threw quivering shadows across her face and body. Tense as they were, both Bravo and Ayla took a step toward her.
“Emma?” Ayla said.
Then Lilith stepped fully into the light, and Bravo let out a held breath.
“My name is Lilith. I’ve been with Emma for...” Her voice petered out and she bit her lower lip. “You’re Bravo Shaw. I recognize you from—” She halted there, a flicker of a different kind of shadow crossing her face.
“You recognize me from where?” Bravo said, taking a second step toward her. And then he saw the war hammer she held at her side. Did she think she could hide it from him? “Where is my sister?”
“She’s back there.” Lilith appeared grateful not to answer the first question. “Behind me, where I came from. She’s—”
Bravo’s face darkened. “She’s what?”
Lilith swallowed hard. “Dying.” Tears glittered in the corners of her eyes. “Emma is dying. We need to—”
Bravo pointed to the war hammer. “Did you—?”
“No. Oh, God, no!” Lilith cried. “I love her.”
It was at that moment they heard the heavy drumbeats of eight pairs of legs. They turned to stare at the chamber behind Thanos. Someone screamed as the Four Thrones moved swiftly from darkness into the light.
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