The absence of demons here concerned me. Perhaps the real demon was the gruelling staircase itself or the drops on each side? Nevertheless we continued over them without complaint, without rest, and without incident.
Hours passed. Two, maybe more. The winds picked up as we approached what looked like burning clouds, clashing like a hundred Hindenburg’s. “Does anyone see the top?" panted Curtis, recovering against me.
"The top?" chuckled Eddinray, sarcastically. "Who can see the bottom?"
Curtis squirmed back to an obscure fall of blacks and oranges, rolling in a glowing churn. I held a calm demeanour throughout; for every step conquered brought me closer to the end, and the more we ascended the more assured I became.
To avoid falling, Curtis was scrupulous at my side, and our umbilical chord did not once strain taut. It was the pair of us who led this gruelling ascent, and the pair of us who discovered the first corpse.
There was a horned helmet left over ravished rags, furry boots and an emerald necklace between twelve worn arrowheads.
"Not the first to make it this far." I said, crouching to survey the morsels. "What could have done this all the way up here?"
"It's beautiful." said Harmony, gazing at the sparkling necklace. She bent to collect it, and giving no reason for doing so, she discarded this precious stone over the edge of the steps. It plummeted to the puffy fires and we watched it fall like spittle all the way.
"There!" announced Eddinray, pointing two steps above to similar arrows with trails of flesh clinging over the tips.
"Appears we are the latest in a long line of attempted escapees." he muttered, picking through the remains."
"Keep an eye out." I said, with a considering squint. Kat too, appeared more than usually troubled.
"Been quiet." I said to him. "You think we're in danger?"
"We're always in danger. I do not know what killed these people Fox, but we are being followed. I sensed it before the locomotive," he added, hoarsely; "and I sense it here now. This feeling won't leave me."
"Before the train?" I said, bewildered. "Why did you keep it to yourself?"
Lightning struck near to startle us, but still I demanded an answer from Kat.
"Does it matter?" complained Harmony. "I mean, really boys, if we keep going at this rate then what's to catch us?"
I peered behind to see nothing on our tail, and meagrely content, we continued our reach for the sky.
We climbed and occasionally rested, every so often coming across more arrows and scattered entrails. I counted thirty-seven skulls sprinkled over the next sixty steps. The rotting virtuous.
"I can't go on!" begged Curtis, red faced and setting himself against a step. "No more! No…more!"
We were all thinking it, but his refusal to move gave us all the excuse to stop. I placed my drained head between my legs. Eddinray and Harmony flopped like worn out slippers whilst Kat and Yuki slunk on a step below us, the samurai wearing a brave face over exhaustion.
"We stay here." I said, rubbing the burn from my joints. "Enough for tonight, eh?"
Agreeing heads bobbled and relieved mouths sighed. "The cloud above is breaking." said Harmony, heaving. "A good sign. Perhaps, perhaps we are close to the top?"
"I hope so." huffed Eddinray. "I dearly do. Can see some birds over there. Is that a good sign too, Harmony?"
"Birds?" asked Kat, suspicious. "Where?"
The knight directed his finger to the fluttering of three busy winged silhouettes.
"Not birds!" exclaimed Kat, getting fast to his feet. "Move!"
His order terrified tiredness to the back of our minds, and we did as we were told. "They were waiting!" he growled, guiding Yuki up the steps. "Waiting!"
"What are they?" I asked, feeling the rope pull at my guts as Curtis scampered ahead. Suddenly, a female cry cut through the sky like nails down a blackboard, and curiosity getting the better of Harmony, she delayed her climb for a look back. "Harpies!" she announced, her eyes bulging. "We're done for!"
Armed with chunky bows and arrows, the three women like creatures had winged backs, crackled blue skin and baldheads, tattooed over with an indecipherable design.
"Go Godwin!" Harmony yelled, feeling a forceful gust from their passing wings.
Starved in the stomachs and deranged in the eyes, the Harpy women attempted to separate us with swooping dives cutting into our group. Twice they spliced us down the middle, but our swinging swords caused them to rethink that strategy. They returned to a safe distance — and there — before a brewing storm they armed their bows, placing three arrows in each to make nine projectiles.
"Huddle!" roared Kat, stopping suddenly. "Now!"
All collected on the same step without question as Kat positioned himself before us, his shadow like a bomb shelter over our bodies. Kat's bravery seemed to amuse the ugly women, who wasted no time firing their arrows. With a whistle, nine sharp sticks came toward our man.
The samurai closed his eyes, honed his focus, then became a blur of cuts, volleying and deflecting all the arrows with spasms of strength and steel, with only a splinter making it through his brilliant shield to score bloody across his forehead.
"Up!" he bawled, immediately. "Up! Up!"
Our huddle broke and we clambered over the next step, and the one after that, hoping to see Hell part above and the exit reveal itself.
"Down" thundered Kat, and we five came together as he single-handedly faced another onslaught of harpies and arrows. He searched, found his mental centre and -
STUT-STUT-CLANG-CLANG!
The attack was over before we could brace ourselves for it, and yet again, we were ordered to our feet and up the steps.
"Up! Up! Up!" he yelled, snatching Yuki by the wrist and pushing her backside ahead.
The moment she was clear on higher steps, Kat received a blow from behind, knocking the swords from his hands and his head near clean from his shoulders.
Bamboozled, Kat opened his eyes to dizzying disorientation as a hysterical Harpy grasped him by the ankle and hung him over a boundless whisk.
"Put him down!" all but Curtis yelled at her. "Drop him! Drop him!"
The fritter faced woman held Kat as if he were weightless in her hand, and carelessly she trailed him upside down until streams of vomit spewed from his mouth.
"Pass the warrior man here!" rasped one Harpy. "I must have him in my hands, sister!"
Presently, we gawked as Kat was flung clear across the clouds. Violently he spun, only to be snatched by the delighted Harpy who demanded him.
Harmony joined Yuki on the higher step, as wife bent and prayed.
"To me sister!" cried the third Harpy. "Pass me the man!"
Kat was again thrown through the sky to be caught by the hair. "Return him at once!" exclaimed Harmony, furious. "You hear me witches?"
All three women collected high above to discuss our group. The sight of the angelic Harmony Valour seemed to spark their interest, and their joy for Kat went on the wane.
"They're going to drop him." I muttered. "Shit, they are…"
The three laughed then started an upward race. They soared until simply dots in the stratosphere, and there, as high as possible, they released our friend to infinity.
"No!" screamed Yuki.
Arms and legs flapping, Kat plummeted, the Harpies not going to save him this time. Without thinking, I collected all the rope slack connecting my waist to Curtis. "What are you doing?!" he asked, dumbfounded, as I snapped my fingers for the wavering eye of -
"Eddinray!" I yelled. "Get behind Curtis! You hold on to his back and don't let go!"
The knight obeyed without question, scurrying behind a sitting Curtis and locking his arms around my prisoner's stomach. "Now what?" bellowed the Englishman.
"Dig in your heels!" I answered, observing Kat's speedy decent, specifically how his body would pass only feet from where I now stood; and seconds before he did, I clenched my fists, sucked in my lips, and took a running leap off the step�
�
The samurai saw, reached out for my arms and — "Got you!" I cried, our hands clasping in mid-air.
Dropping now, our connecting bodies smashed against the sidewall of those steps, and the rope connecting me to Curtis instantly strung taut, dragging himself and Eddinray toward the sheer face.
Curtis screamed, and so did I as that rope throttled at our guts, but despite this, I held steadfast onto Kat's wrist, as he dangled over emptiness.
Thinking fast, Harmony came behind Eddinray to add her weight to this anchor. "Pull back!" cried the knight, desperately clinging to Curtis. "Back!"
Yuki came also, tugging Harmony's wings as the angel pulled at Eddinray, who pulled at Curtis, who lifted Kat and me from peril.
"Get this fucking rope off!" wailed Curtis, collapsing. "I can't breathe!"
Kat and I slumped to the safety of flat stone, and there lay in a panting, stupefied mess. "You're crazy Fox!" Curtis bawled. "Fucking insane!"
"Where are they?" I asked, eyes searching the sky. "Where?"
The Harpies were nowhere to be seen, but relaxing was out of the question. Forgetting the crunching pain in my stomach, we set again up the steps, but not before Kat could gather up his swords to face a third wave of arrows. Refusing to hide in the huddle, I removed my own sword and stood beside. "Together Kat." I grunted. "Together."
He nodded back, then urged the others to pack themselves tighter.
The whistling arrows struck, two successfully beating our shield. I was hit in the thigh and Kat took one in his shoulder. I fell backward and he forward, the fires coursing through our nervous system. Yuki cried, then draped herself over her stricken husband. "Climb!" he demanded, pushing her away. "Please!"
In her mania, Yuki did as she was told, climbing the remaining steps as Harmony came under my arm, and Eddinray propped up the other.
"Give me your sword, knight!" begged Curtis, over the chortling creatures swooning around us. "I must be free of this rope! I'll be killed otherwise!"
"I will not!" he returned, ducking. However, Curtis, with no one to stop him, bashed our group aside and threw himself on top of Eddinray, wrestling for possession of his long sword.
"Leave him alone!" yelled Harmony, kicking Curtis in the back as Kat sat weak on the step.
"Ger off!" cried Eddinray, finding a free hand to wallop Curtis on the chin.
"Look out!" exclaimed Harmony, spotting a forth wave of incoming arrows.
Eddinray covered himself over the reluctant angel as best he could, and before the arrows smashed us, Kat smiled contently to see Yuki out of harms way above, the blood oozing from his nostrils as he struggled to his legs to see off this fresh batch. Faint, I joined him.
"Together." he gargled.
"This is not the end." I mumbled back, before feeling a hot arrow penetrate my waist, then another through my wrist. I slouched half-conscious over Kat as remaining projectiles bounced from the path of friends and prisoner.
No fight or sense was left in me; the samurai, however, suddenly got a remarkable second wind. I heard him growl underneath me, as if angered by some extraordinary insult. The bones in his ribcage seemed to rumble, shaking all the melancholy from his system. He placed me delicately onto my back then snapped the arrow from his shoulder, throwing the end away like a used cigarette butt. He then smeared the blood away from his nose, returned the katana to its sheath then stroked the smaller Wakizashi through his fingers. As Harpies reloaded, he aimed up the three with one hand — pulled back the sword with the other — then threw with all his might.
His makeshift javelin was like a shooting star through the furious sky, piercing the black heart of one stuttering sister Harpy.
"Amazing!" gasped Eddinray, while Kat redrew his katana. The injured creature's wings wilted, and she duly dived to her second death, with stunned sisters watching.
"Here!" yelled Yuki, from the highest point in this world. "Come! Come!"
She had reached the top step and exit as two inconsolable Harpies came to avenge their sister. Kat assisted me over one-step, then the next. Still Curtis fought with the rope knot as we bundled as fast as possible toward Yuki, who abruptly bellowed — "Behind you!"
A fifth bombardment glided toward our backs. Two arrows battered off Eddinray's armor to leave deep dimples, three more struck the surrounding steps whilst the last sank deep into my calf. I jolted backward with a spray of blood leaving my mouth. Kat ordered Curtis to help me, but refusing outright, he instead used every inch of available rope slack to ascend from all of us. Although the samurai warrior was badly wounded himself, he still had the temerity to haul my body over his good shoulder, and then heave us inch by inch up these last remaining steps.
His humongous effort took us to Yuki and the others before another attack could see us off. Slunk at the very summit of Hell-fire, the steps rose over a swirling storm, sucking the burning air into a fiery Armageddon in the eye. This was a portal containing the evil we were running from, and poking out of this searing hole was the tallest structure in all of Hell — the tip of the 9th Fortress.
A gale blew like God's own breath, while Harpies aimed their arrows. Before us was a wall of stone with a crack wide enough to squeeze through. A wooden notice was perched above this entrance — inscribed in flame, in Latin it read and Harmony translated:
"No light. No chance."
42. Cold Dead Hands
"I have stopped the bleeding," said Kat; "but you'll need rest Fox."
Sincerity is a thing I would never get used to hearing from Kat's lips. With precise work, he had earlier removed four arrows from my body, sealing the wounds with fire before wrapping them over with cloth.
We where transported to some dripping cave, lit by perpetually burning torches on the rock, and whose descending trail was smothered by night. We would face that darkness later; in the meantime we would heal.
Harmony busied herself by counting the indents over her dozing Eddinray's armor. Curtis kept his concentration to that black burrow we would soon venture. "No light, no chance." he mumbled, in a raving manner.
Yuki appeared to be enjoying a deep sleep near Kat, who lovingly stroked her hair and happily engaged me in conversation.
"Do you remember what Virgil said?" I asked him. "How…we should all say our goodbyes?"
His pensive face nodded, and I continued. "A witch told me something similar. At first, I thought it was a dream but she was real Kat, and right about many things. I gave up back there on those stairs. I wanted it to be me. I wanted to die.
After a long pause, a serious samurai replied. "Many times in my life…I too have considered surrender. Many times. We cannot have victory without defeat — cannot have strength without weakness. Savour your victories Fox — learn from your defeats. We are men, and only monsters belong in this Hell."
His focus then returned to his stirring wife, while I proudly examined my battle weary friends under the firelight.
"Kat?" I whispered. "Do you still feel…a presence following us?"
"I do." he growled. "What I sense is no man, but an ancient cold. We will not escape this demon. It will follow us everywhere."
Harmony glanced up at me, having just finished counting the dimples marking Eddinray.
"Sixty four in total." she said.
I smiled, then dropped off to sleep…
***
"Can't see the hand before my face!" exclaimed, Harmony. "Not a thing!"
We had long passed the comforting light of torches, and here in cramped pitch-black darkness, I led the way. The floor bobbled like bunched together boulders, and the smell was a concoction of bile and vomit. Blind, I sensed the walls crunching and then expanding out again — inhaling, exhaling, and elastic to the touch. The footing incredibly unstable, I stumbled forward to splash into a pool of some kind, taking Curtis with me on the rope.
My stomach muscles contracted and I wretched. This pool was the source of the stench, and I was hip deep in it. The others joined us and complained
at the unknown objects, body parts presumably, floating amongst them. Worryingly, I then heard the numerous popping, as if water was slowly coming to the boil.
Harmony screamed, Yuki too. Both women experiencing a very sudden and excruciating pain. The water was gargling, bubbling and roasting hot. I reached back for my prisoner's hand then guided us through this corrosive toward the vague outline of a boulder. I pressed my back against that rock and forced Curtis on top of it. Then, feeling acid eat at my legs, I waited to lift out my arriving friends one by one.
Once out, their hands reached down for me.
"Intolerable heat or intolerable cold!" wheezed Eddinray. "Is nothing lukewarm?"
"All here?" I asked, and all replied dismally. I took slight comfort now, however, a fragile hope in my heart to see a faintly shining star ahead. "Please be the way.' I said.
Already feeling that burning sensation die, all of us climbed with grimaces and spills up a dark tunnel, gripping strands of growing hair hanging from above.
"Who has their hands on my throat?" gasped Harmony, suddenly. "Oh, it's cold! Is that you, Godwin?"
"My dear," he said, behind her; "why would I ever wrap my hands around your throat? And in the dark too! Hold on…" he stuttered; "I fee — "
The knight squawked like a parrot, followed by a guttural sound, which spread like a virus to Harmony — to my prisoner — to Yuki — to.. "What's wrong?!" I bawled, waving blindly. "Someone? What's happening?"
Similar choking came from Kat also, and I could hear their bodies writhing over the lumpy boulders.
"Kat?" I begged. "What the fuck's going on?"
Why would my eyes not acclimatize to this darkness? I tripped again to land over a convulsing Curtis, who in full spasm grasped his unkempt nails into my arms. I forced him off, and standing, I suddenly sensed a curious pressure begin to tingle at my own throat. "Oh no…"
There was no stranger's hand at my neck, only invisible, harmless air. The disturbing sensation continued nonetheless — increased, intensified — five fingertips unmistakably grazing the stubble under my chin before constricting a hold around my neck. A knot was tied around my breath, and I collapsed to choke beside my friends.
The 9th Fortress Page 41