bedeviled & beyond 03 - bedeviled & beleaguered

by Sam Cheever

  The huge room, I knew from hours spent playing make-believe between its cool, stone walls as a child, was encased in flat, brown stone. The center of the floor had a large drain, presumably to drain blood and other foul substances, from the days when torture had been commonplace. And, though they were currently hidden beyond the light, I knew thick, metal rings adorned the walls. The room appeared empty and felt unnaturally cold. My gaze swung back to my mother.

  “Why’d you bring me here?”

  “I missed you.”

  “Uh-huh. Now tell me why you brought me here.”

  “She was simply following orders,” said a voice I recognized from my past.

  I turned toward the voice, my heart sinking, “Prince Nille, we meet again.”

  The devil prince curved well-formed lips in a cold smile. His frigidly handsome face pulling any heat there might have been out of the smile. “Astra. Welcome to Hell.”

  I laughed but we all knew I didn’t mean it. Goose bumps pebbled my skin. I was afraid he was right. It did feel like Hell.

  “No really,” I said, “why am I here, mother?” I turned away from Nille, dismissing him as best I could with my body language.

  Danika shrugged, “It has begun. The conduits are gathering.”

  “Gathering? You mean being dragged kicking and screaming into the shadows?”

  My mother lifted her arm and I saw the tear-shaped devil’s mark there. Nille did the same.

  Apparently I was in great company.

  “You are a unique case, Astra. Because of your special mix of powers you’re invaluable for this exercise. Your unwillingness to cooperate is a problem. A problem I’ve just taken care of.” My mother tapped me on the tip of my nose with a long, cold finger and my goose bumps got bigger and called all their friends.

  “So. I said, looking around at the large, empty room. Just the three of us so far? I hope you two have lots of power to pull from because I’m not joining in your little party. I don’t care what you do to me.”

  Nille nodded, the harsh illumination from the uncovered bulb above his head caressing his shiny, golden hair with tender fingers of light. “We expected you to give us some trouble, Astra. Which is why we brought insurance.”

  He waved a hand toward one wall and the light moved to illuminate a single, limp form hanging from the rings.

  Darma.

  She appeared to be unconscious.

  My skin crawled over my body in horror. Turning to my mother I said, “You would sacrifice your own daughter to the dark purpose?”

  She shrugged. “We are all expendable, Astra. A reality that neither you nor your father has seemed able to grasp. It’s a weakness that will be your downfall eventually. But in the meantime...” she glanced meaningfully toward Darma, “it is a very handy tool to use against you both.”

  My eyes widened, “Both? You aren’t going to try to pull him into this.” It wasn’t a question. The idea was preposterous. Tender my father might be, but he wouldn’t sacrifice a world of humans to save his own daughter. He was a Seraphim for the Big Guy’s sake, God’s right hand man. He had responsibilities, priorities. He remained ever true to the divine goal.

  Didn’t he?

  My mother shrugged again. “He’ll come to us. One way or the other. I know his weaknesses like I know my own strengths. He has many of them. Which is why he disgusts me so.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Trying to convince me or yourself, mother?”

  She jumped as if she’d been poked in the behind with a live wire. Temper sparked in her beautiful black eyes. “Even now the veil drops into place. The humans have been driven to such a state of madness they’re turning on their own with little thought. No one will be spared the veil’s poison, Astra, no one. When the humans die the endless rule of the Royal Devil Court will begin. No one can stop this from happening, daughter. You might as well join us and reap the benefits once we sit at the seat of power.”

  My disgust for her and her kind filled me until I thought I might explode. At one time I’d told myself she had some good in her. I no longer believed that. She had killed whatever feelings I might have harbored for her. A fear I’d lived with for years finally curled up inside my chest and went to sleep. It was like a giant weight lifting from my soul.

  I knew, finally, that I was not like her. I could not be completely ruled by evil, corrupted totally by power.

  I was my father’s daughter. And proud of it.

  “Go back to Hell where you belong.” I spat at her.

  She looked at me with disgust and waved a hand. Suddenly I hung beside my sister from that cold, damp wall.

  I figured I was no worse off in those rings. I liked the company better over there, anyway.

  ~SC~

  I dozed on and off, restless sleep peppered by nightmares and visitations from the Serpent. Occasionally my fitful rest was broken by static in my mind, as if someone was trying to reach me through my mental drawers. After a while, I simply wove the static into my nightmares and slept on.

  At some point I climbed far enough into consciousness to realize that my sleep was too deep and too tenacious to be natural. I tried to extricate myself from it then but something held me there.

  Finally a shrill screech in my mind caused me to jerk awake, though I still couldn’t pry my eyes open. Astra! Wake the hell up!

  Darma’s dulcet tones.

  I smiled in my mind. Hey! What are you doin’ hangin’ around here?

  Darma threw me a mental frown. You need to shake it off. We have to get the hell out of here.

  Okay. I yawned hugely. You got a plan?

  Huge mental sigh. You’re hopeless, Astra. How have you survived all these years without me around?

  Mental shrug. Why am I so tired?

  I think it’s the rings. They have some kind of power attached to them. I noticed it tingling against my skin when they first put me in them.

  So all we need to do is break the rings.

  Well, that and then escape from wherever the hell we are.

  The shadows.

  Huh? The what?

  We’re in the shadows. It’s bogyman land. They thrive and hide here and we don’t.

  This is under the bed and in the closet?

  I grinned. Exactly.

  “Why is she smiling?” Prince Nille sounded cranky.

  Oh, oh, we’re not alone in here.

  I felt Darma frowning. We’ll have to wait until they leave to break the rings.

  Just like that. No concern that we wouldn’t be able to break the damn rings. I sighed in my mind. Oh to be young and naïve again. My lips curved.

  “She’s smiling again. I don’t like it.” Prince Nille had certainly gotten very whiny in the fiery afterlife.

  My mother’s voice held a note of impatience. She was most likely wondering how she’d gotten saddled with such a whiny baby. “She’s probably just dreaming about the Roaring Lion.”

  Serpent. My mind corrected.

  Unclean Spirit, Darma contributed.

  Swine, I added.

  Lying Spirit, Darma concluded.

  Walking Orgick turd.

  Okay, okay, I think we’ve covered it.

  I’ve never known when to quit. I grinned again.

  “She’s way too frunkin’ happy.”

  Danika sighed, “Don’t concern yourself with her. She can’t do anything. She’s under the Serpent’s power.”

  So, Astra, where are we going when we get out of these rings?

  I considered the question for a moment and then realized the obvious first step. The tunnels.

  I felt Darma’s frown. Huh?

  The tunnels leading to the river. There has to be some way to exit the shadows into the real world. It can’t be in the house because father would have known if there was a portal there. It has to be the tunnels.

  That makes a weird kind of sense.

  Thanks.

  “Where are you going?” Prince Nille sounded petulant.

  Da
nika’s voice when she responded was coated with barely disguised disdain. “I must prepare for the ceremony. You need to gather the others.”

  “What about these two?”

  Our mother made a derisive noise. “They aren’t going anywhere.”

  “I’ll need your help with James.”

  “I’m well aware of that. But you can handle a couple of Royals, a witch and an elf on your own can’t you?” She wasn’t even bothering to try to hide her disgust with him.

  “Take care, witch.” There was the snotty, superior voice I remembered so well. It was about time he stood up to our mother.

  However, in all fairness, it was logical to assume that getting blown into atmospheric gas by the white magic of an entire division of the celestial army and then being summarily ejected from the Pearly Gates by St. Peter could take some of the starch out of one’s spine. I was willing to cut him some slack for that.

  You’re stupid, Astra.

  Hey! I told my sister indignantly, Get out of my thoughts.

  Well, you just throw them out there. It’s not like I can avoid them when they’re constantly smacking me in the face.

  Bite me!

  Bite me first.

  I threw her a mental grin and she grinned back. Just like old times. It was good to have her back.

  We stopped talking and listened for a moment. Nothing.

  Do you think they’re gone?

  I gave her a mental shrug. Only one way to find out. I’ll peek.

  How are you gonna do that, Astra? I can’t open my eyes can you?

  I will be able to, after I put some power into it.

  Won’t they feel your power if they’re in the room.

  They might, I’ll just try to use a little bit. It’s a chance we’ll have to take. If we wait too long they’ll be back.

  Okay, go for it. And Astra?

  Yeah?

  Good luck. I felt a slight pressure on my hand and realized she had to have done it mentally.

  Hey! Cool trick.

  She grinned proudly in my mind. I’ve been practicing.

  Good. Now if they attack me you can throttle them with your mind.

  Har.

  I focused my thoughts inward and found the string of power waiting for me there. I gave it a tentative tug and nothing happened.

  These rings must be dampening my power somehow.

  Try harder!

  Oh, why didn’t I think of that? I threw her a mental middle digit and she responded with the look that had quelled me for years when I’d been younger and smaller than she was. It still caused my heart to flutter a bit.

  I refocused on the power string and gave it a harder pull, it flared briefly and then fizzled. Taking a deep, mental breath, I gathered every bit of concentration I could and visualized the flame growing. That time it flared, grew slightly and then died. I finally gave up after about twenty tries. I was exhausted.

  You can’t give up, Astra.

  I glared through our mental connection. You try!

  I can’t. I don’t know what to do.

  Remember the exercises we had you do in my office? Use those techniques to grab your power and pull it forward.

  She sighed, Okay, I’ll try. After several minutes Darma gave up too.

  Tension filled me as frustration at my helplessness warred with the sure knowledge that either my mother or Prince Nille would return at any moment. I knew we needed to figure something out and fast.

  I’m really cold, Astra.

  I gave a mental jerk of surprise. It was so unlike Darma to whine. Then I realized I was cold too. She wasn’t complaining, she was stating a fact.

  I cast about with my sensing power and found that the dungeon was filled with hundreds if not thousands of flickering cold spots. My immediate reaction was panic. What if the evil Danika and her minions had returned? But surely we would have heard them. Whatever was holding us in thrall didn’t seem to have affected our awareness of our surroundings.

  It’s not Mother. Her aura is red and hot. Like Hell.

  I forgot, Darma had been hanging there longer than I had. She’d probably already noticed a lot of things. When did you start feeling cold?

  Right after that last time you tried to grab your power.

  A light bulb went off in my head. Of course! Why didn’t I think of that before!

  What?

  Ignoring her I reached for the power that flickered around me rather than trying to ignite the faltering power within. The dungeon was filled with the unsettled spirits of all of the people who’d been tortured and killed there during the dark ages. I’d recently learned that my power allowed me to channel Earthbound spirits’ otherwise latent power. In fact it actually seemed to draw them to me somehow.

  The cold hit me first, like a blast of arctic air through a door that had been blown open on a gust of Winter wind. My muscles convulsed under the icy onslaught, tightening painfully against it. After a split second’s hesitation, the power shifted and surged into me. It hit me so hard I gasped in the physical world and my head slammed back against the rock wall.

  Still in my mind, Darma cried out in fear and shared pain. Which gave me an idea.

  Darma...try to m-merge...your...p-power with mine. I was under such siege I could barely shove a thought down our mind connection. She didn’t respond but, as my body swung in the roiling air caused by the sudden influx of necromantic power in the dungeon room, her energy slid into mine.

  I was shocked by the depth of her power. It filled me to a painful level, making my skin prickle and my head pound with its intensity. It occurred to me that, if she ever learned to fully harness it, she would be formidable. Darma’s sizzling energy burned against the icy power I’d embraced, warming it so that I no longer felt as if my body would freeze from the inside out and break into millions of tiny bits on the stone floor. The incredible force of our combined power would have been too much for me, except that somehow Darma managed to pull some of the necromantic power into herself. The magics merged and leveled out so that we were both carrying an equal load.

  When that happened, my poor battered body finally stopped swinging in the rings and instead jerked, vibrating with energy, against the wall.

  I felt Darma’s terror, fed by the fact that she carried within her the rage-filled energy of thousands of dead souls. Her screams reverberated through my head, causing my physical body to break out in a copious sweat. I realized we needed to finish what we’d started and get the magic out of Darma, before she drove me to complete insanity with her girly shrieking.

  Compassion R Me.

  Darma, focus on the rings. Break them. Now!

  Somehow my voice got through to her, despite the shrieking. The power connection between us shivered and pulsed as she struggled to focus the awesome power she held upward and into the hated rings.

  I did the same.

  For a long moment I didn’t think it was going to work. But then the wall behind me began to vibrate and dust and small chunks of rock started raining down on my head. I’d had that experience before and I knew we needed to move fast and get the Hades out of there. Darma! Break the damn rings, now!

  I let all barriers go on the power I held and it shot up into the space above my head where I knew the rings were embedded into the rock wall. The power hit the wall with a concussive blast that tore my hands loose and flung me through the air. I landed in a heap on the floor and my eyes shot open. Even as my gaze flew to Darma her rings blasted out of the wall and she sailed past me. She landed with a grunt and I ran over to see if she was all right.

  Her blue eyes popped open and she grabbed my hand, pulling herself upright. “Come on Astra. I’ve always hated this damnable dungeon. Now I’ll never be able to come down here again.”

  I turned and ran toward the door in the wall that led into the tunnel. Around us the dungeon roared and twisted and huge chunks of rock crumbled away and fell, dislodging more rock as they hit with the force of a laser train against concrete.r />
  Small cracks quickly became fractures and fractures became yawning crevices as the dungeon disintegrated around us. The door wrenched sideways, frame and all as I reached for it and Darma shrieked.

  I turned to glare at her. “Would you please man up?”

  She couldn’t hear me over the roar of the dying dungeon but she recognized the look on my face. Peaking an eyebrow in silent reprimand, she shoved my shoulder and I grabbed the crooked door, yanking it back on its twisted hinges enough that we could squeeze through.

  Once in the tunnels I started running, flinging my power out in front of us to light the way. Overhead the tunnel shivered and dirt floated down to coat us.

  Reaching back to grab Darma’s hand, I screamed above the din, “Run faster!”

  And run she did. I felt her sneakers bashing against the back of my legs, spurring me to new heights of speed in self-defense as the tunnel started to collapse around us.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  A Fine Adventure

  Through tunnels made of stone they ran, to escape the Devil’s spawn,

  Only to find themselves entrapped and to the Devil drawn.

  As we ran, I kept nudging my mental drawers to see exactly where we came out of the shadows and reentered the real world. I started to get a slight crackling static when we were about two-thirds of the way through the tunnel.

  I knew we were getting close to the river because the ground beneath our feet turned sandy and squished with moisture. However, as we finally emerged, panting and covered in dirt and debris, from the mouth of the tunnel, it looked like we were still in the shadows.

  The air was thick and dense with mist. I could barely see Darma, bent over at the waist and panting as if she would die, just a couple of feet away from me.

  Then my mental drawers shifted and Emo’s voice came to me. Astra are you okay? Captain Lee said some dark haired woman popped into unplanned care and shifted you away.

  Out of the shadows, thank the Big Guy. I allowed my weary knees to buckle and sagged to the ground. Cool moisture seeped into my clothing but I didn’t care. I’m fine now. It was Danika. She took Darma too. But we got out and we’re both fine.