So confident. He thinks he holds all the cards, but there must be a way.
“I’m not ready to commit yet,” I said, knowing he was waiting for my answer. “I need a little more time. You’re asking me to give up my life, my friends.”
He frowned. “Don’t delay your decision too long or I will change my mind. I will give you one more hour to decide.”
I thought he would put me in the cage again. Instead, a silver chain slithered around my right wrist and the arm of the chair, then worked its way almost to my elbow, sealing itself at the end. Without thinking, I tugged against it, testing its strength. Yep, it would hold me.
“Feel free to sample the food. You might find it quite enjoyable. And while you’re considering the benefits of what I’m offering, let me throw in a negative.” He leaned in so his mouth was next to my ear and purred, “If you refuse, both you and your friend will become one of those creatures outside my walls.”
Repulsion rose in my stomach as he said it, and I choked up, my heart beating with the jolt of adrenaline the thought sent coursing through me.
“You... bastard...” I managed to spit out, but he’d already left the room.
Now, what could I do? I couldn’t get free of the chair, and I wasn’t sure I could break the wooden piece I’d been bound to from the rest of it.
“We’re really screwed, Gilly,” Janna said as she worked her way to the front of the cage. “Either way, we lose.”
“I know. More than you know.” I closed my eyes and tried to think of a plan. Oddly, I heard Zoe’s voice in my mind saying, “Why were you chosen for this?”
Good question, then the answer. “Your voice, dummy. Your singing voice.”
My singing voice. I had that power. That’s what she was telling me. But how did I use it in this situation?
While I pondered that, I heard the door to the hall open, and the hitch of Janna’s breath as something slipped into the room. Something moving silently. And in a few moments, a black soul was crouching beside me studying at the silver chain around my wrist.
“Lucca?” I said.
“Si. I followed you back to here and slipped inside. This is held magically. I can’t find an end.”
“You’re right. Can you break the top of the arm off the chair?”
He grasped it with his appendages and applied pressure until I heard it crack. Then he yanked, pulling as hard as he could. The arm gave way as the side broke apart. Now, I had a ten-inch section stuck to my arm, but I could move.
Lucca pulled out his mobile phone and held it up to me. “Orielle sent this spell that should break the lock on the cage. She said you need to get the rhythm correct. You understand?”
“You got a signal? How?” I said in shock.
“No signal. Ferko went back across the cavern to get it from her at the entrance in Utah.”
Ferko must have run all the way, crossing that narrow bridge, and the trail to the portal with record speed then returned as quickly. Not that much time had passed since I’d spoken to Lucca in the market.
I took the offered phone, reading the phonetic pronunciation of the words, then listening to her saying them in the proper rhythm. “I can do this. I think I’ve got it. I’ll get Janna out. You need to go back to the others and seal the portal. I’ll be behind you as soon as I can free her.”
“Gillian, I will wait for you. Bob and Ferko are at the doors outside.”
“No, go back now. Get them off this world and back to ours. If I don’t make it back, then you need to seal it off, but I plan to be right behind you.”
He hesitated.
“Go,” I hissed and waved him away.
I saw the reluctance but ignored him as I went to the cage and knelt before it, praying that this would work. If it didn’t, I wasn’t sure what I would do. I couldn’t let Janna become one of those creatures any more than I wanted to be one. So, if it failed, I would yield to Belphegor and battle with him through however long he tolerated me to try to keep Earth and the upper realms free of him.
I began saying the spell, duplicating the rhythm Orielle had set and hoped my pronunciations were right. Nothing happened. I tried it again, adjusting my sounds a little. Still nothing.
Feeling like my last hope was dying, I tried once more remembering Zoe’s words. I sang the spell in a low, near the bottom of my range, series of notes similar to the binding chant to seal the portal.
A spark of light bounced off the cage, and the lock glowed for a moment. Eagerly, I pushed the lock aside and urged Janna out. She hesitated, not confident she could get through the door, but she didn’t encounter any resistance.
“Can you return to the cemetery from here?” I asked.
“I think so,” she answered. “If I can picture it, I can go there.”
“Then do it. Either go on through the light tunnel or hide once you get there. Don’t let any yiaiwas near you again. I’ll come to you as soon as I can.”
She nodded and whispered, “Thanks. I’ll see you soon.” Then she vanished, a blur of motion that simply disappeared.
I spun around, grabbed my pack and started toward the hall door. Before I was halfway to it, Belphegor stood in it, eyes glaring as he took in the scene.
“You’re more resourceful than I thought,” he growled. “But you won’t get away.”
He came toward me then, moving quickly but not as a spirit, as a corporeal form. I channeled my energy and shoved my hands out, both palms forward to send a blast into him. It caught him and hurled him back into the corridor outside the hall where he smashed against a staircase.
I’d begun running as soon as I blasted him. Now I sprinted past him as he stumbled to regain his feet. He seemed a little dazed, so maybe with enough power, I could damage him even if I couldn’t kill him. I dashed toward the doors ready to blast the guards and crashed into Gweerak, who was heading toward the commotion.
Indentured servant or not, I turned my energy blast on him and watched him go down without a sound, dropping like a sack. I spun back toward Belphegor and shot another blast at him, but he retaliated with a counter attack of some kind of magic toward me that barely missed me as I’d started running again.
Readying my power again, I reached back with my left hand for my Ruger that was already loaded with a full magazine. I could probably take the guards down with that. But as I stepped outside the palace, I didn’t see the guards, but I did see a trio of dark souls guarding the main gate. I detected a scent of smoke in the area, and I suspected Bob had taken care of the guards with a fireball or two.
“Hurry!” I yelled as I raced toward them. They formed a guard around me, with, I thought, Ferko at the rear, and we ran down the main road to head back to the portal.
Behind us, I heard Belphegor scream, and I had a feeling he was summoning help. In a moment or two, I felt a yank on my body and realized the silver chain on my arms was tugging me back as Belphegor pulled with his power.
I slipped backward, past Ferko, moving more toward the demon as he gained ground on us.
“You fool,” he shouted. “You think you can keep me out by sealing one portal. There are more all over the universe. But your friends won’t make it to seal the ones here.”
I brought my left hand around with a powerful blast wishing I had someone to help augment it when I felt a sudden weight on my shoulders. In shock, I realized spirit Nygard had transported. He’d sensed my danger and come even though I wanted him home and safe.
I released my blast, the blue-white burst shooting into Belphegor and sending him spinning back up the road. The impact was enough to break the magical tug, although I feared he could repeat it at any time.
Oblivious to the pain in my body, I broke into a run toward my team again with Nygard jumping down and sprinting with us. Bob stood in front of the others, fireball readied. As soon as I ran past him, he stepped forward and hurled the fireball into the nearest field setting it ablaze. Then sent another one down the road to where Belphegor was pulling
himself to his feet again.
We hurried, dashing across the field of flowers to the portal we needed to seal. It was open now, and we didn’t hesitate to make the run for it. I felt the tug again, turning back as it looked like Belphegor was winding up another magical blast.
“Nygard, to me,” I called, my cat coming to my side, and felt Bob’s presence next to me at the same time. Together, we prepared to hurl our respective power energies at Belphegor, but as we started, I sang out the opening to “We Will Rock You” and an enhanced blaze of fire and flash lightning hit him dead on. Then we charged through the portal.
On the other side, Orielle and the priest, now on this side of the cavern, held off a trio of yiaiwa, who were trying to grab them and get to the portal. Ferko had already dropped the illusion and was into the battle using an electric baton against them. I hadn’t even known he had one. Lucca joined him with his own rod, plus they couldn’t touch him. Bob pulled up another fireball and sent a yiaiwa screaming off the ledge.
They were more substantial here than in the graveyard or on Earth, so I began to suspect this might be their domain. I sent a blast into another that was getting close to Orielle and it, too, went flying off into the cavern below.
Orielle pulled the portal shut while the priest readied his holy water.
“Hold them off, guys,” I told the others. “More might be coming, but we’re going to seal this portal.”
I turned back to the portal as Father Vincente traced the edges with fingers dipped in the water as he said a prayer. Orielle waited as a backup for me, then I positioned myself and began singing the chant I’d practiced so many times. The tones duplicated the ones I’d originally heard, and I felt the power soon after I started. Running through it the first time started the process, the second time began the seal.
As I finished that pass, I heard a hard thud against the door on the other side. Belphegor had made it to the portal. Sucking in a breath, I sang the chant for the third time, watching the golden glimmer of light that lasted three seconds and went dark. Gold flashed again as more thuds and an attempt to activate the lock came from the other side along with a high-pitched shriek of anger as the effort failed.
Father Vincente lowered his head and whispered thanks to the Almighty, then turned to us. “It is done. The demon is trapped.” More English than I’d heard him speak in the whole time we’d been there.
But the fight wasn’t completed yet as more yiaiwa arrived. With our weapons, we had a chance against them here. But we needed to get back across that bridge before more trapped us on this ledge.
Lucca quickly connected us with the rope that Belphegor had so thoughtfully left behind, and we started across. Orielle went first, with Father Vincente only a pace or two behind her. Next, Lucca started over, then Nygard and I followed with Bob behind me, while Ferko guarded the rear. Bob and I both kept sending our separate blasts at the yiaiwa that tried to approach. They may be more substantial, but they could still glide in the air like the bats.
As my energy reserves declined, the pain in my limbs and ribs ached more, and my blasts weakened as well.
The trip across wasn’t any less harrowing than it was the first time, but I paid less attention to how scary it was and concentrated on following Lucca’s footsteps while fighting yiaiwa. The thought that they might somehow collapse it did enter my mind until I noticed two of them following us across.
As we hit the trail on the other side, I grabbed Orielle’s arm and said, “We need to seal this gate also.”
She nodded as she and Father Vincente began to climb up it while the rest of us turned to fight the yiaiwa behind us. The numbers were increasing rapidly. I didn’t know how much longer we could continue.
I fired my Muddy Girl at one. While it didn’t kill him, it definitely winged him, and he reacted to it. On an off chance, I began singing a hymn off-key and at as high a note as I could reach. Not as high as Cara’s, but the annoying sound seems to drive them back a little. While it didn’t do much long-term good, it did give us a breather.
We made it further up where I found all the activity had disturbed the dinner-plate sized spider that now appeared more aggressive than it had before. Bob didn’t hesitate, shooting a fireball into the web that soon caught the spider and it went scurrying off into the field of stalactites and stalagmites.
In an unexpected moment, one of the columns went up in a blue flame. The odor of sulfur drifted on the air. Lucca and I exchanged a glance, then we picked up our pace on the path. Another column caught fire, and we knew it wouldn’t be long before we’d all be coughing if we didn’t get out of the area soon.
The yiaiwa didn’t like it much either. They were zooming back from the already ignited area. As another couple of burns started, they retreated even more.
But another scurry of activity caught my eye as the bats in the cave began to swarm and fly in circles forming a cloud that started to move to the west above the yiaiwa, who were diving lower.
“The bats are heading out,” I said. “There’s another exit from here. If there’s a portal there, then it’s another way out for the yiaiwa.”
I recalled the trail that went to the west we’d spotted when we first came in. Only a short distance more up the path, I found it again. “I’m going this way. If there’s a portal, I’ll seal it.”
Lucca looked alarmed. “You don’t know if it will put you out in our world. You can’t go through it.”
“And we can’t continue to give the yiaiwa access to our world if it does open to Earth. I need to check it out. You all go on ahead. Tell Orielle to seal that door.”
“We’ll wait for you,” Lucca insisted.
“If I’m not there in an hour, then do it. But I’m pretty sure this is the other portal Belphegor mentioned.” The demon probably hoped I hadn’t caught the plural in his threat to me.
Not waiting for a response, I started up the path hurrying as fast as I could with Nygard on my heels,. To one side of me, more of the columns went up in flame giving the cavern the look of Hell. So far, the sulfur smell was the worst of the burning, but I feared gas might be released and that could be deadly to us. I wanted the team out of there as soon as possible and was relieved to see the three guys continuing up the path after Orielle and Father Vincente.
The distance to the opening where the bats flew turned out to be not more than a half-mile through the field of pillars and columns. Fortune favored me as the fire was moving slow enough that it didn’t impact my progress across it. I stumbled a couple of times but didn’t fall, and most of the insects steered clear of me as they scrambled from the approaching flames.
I glimpsed the light of the tunnel, but I also saw the glisten of a silver door. Encouraged, my super-sized cat and I charged toward it. If it opened into Belphegor’s world as well, it would be a race to reach it. The path led right to it, putting me onto a wide ledge that went into a tunnel almost identical to the one we’d come through in Utah. The last of the bats were just slipping outside through a slit in the rock over my head.
I stepped through and found a second portal here. I slammed the door shut on the one we’d exited, then turned my attention to the other. Without even opening it, I started singing the sealing chant and running my fingers around the edge of the door. I didn’t have holy water, but I was reasonably sure the spell would be enough.
As the third time through finished, the golden light shimmered, and the seal completed. I turned to the other portal and began singing it again. A yiaiwa materialized behind me, slamming me into the door. Where it had come from, I had no idea, but it tore into me.
A chill shot through my body, not as severe as on the ethereal plane, but enough that it shocked my system. I gasped, fearful of another touch as my shaking hand tried to call up a bolt of energy. From behind it, Nygard launched himself into the yiaiwa, and he raked his claws through the creature’s skin. Even though Nygard was a spirit creature, he still impacted the yiaiwa.
Miraculously, the s
kin shredded, only easier and deeper here. I took a chance and fired the remainder of my bullets into the yiaiwa. It staggered back, then collapsed onto the ground. I felt like doing the same. My body ached all over, and I was beginning to feel injuries I didn’t know I had. Then there was that damnable chill.
Turning back to the portal, I started the ritual again and worked my way through it three times, relieved when the golden light washed over it. It was done. We’d beat Belphegor.
I sat on the floor of the tunnel next to Nygard’s spirit. “Hey, kit. It’s time for you to return. We’re done here. Now, go on home and give Ferris a snug from me, okay?”
He made a nudging move with his head like he was rubbing against me, then he vanished. I felt his departure with a pang in my chest. I hoped I was still on Earth and would be home soon.
After a brief rest that only made the aches worse, I levered myself up and went down the tunnel following a glow of light at the end. I stepped out into a cloudy afternoon confronting the golden glow on the shaded red stones all around me. I gazed across the valley, not sure if I was still in Utah, but definitely in my world. The hints of blue sky and the air felt like home.
One way to be sure, I pulled out Orielle’s phone and selected Lucca’s phone number. He answered on the second ring.
“I’m not exactly sure where I am, but I’m pretty sure it’s somewhere in the vicinity.”
“Thank you, Lord,” he said with heartfelt relief. “Leave the phone on, and we’ll triangulate your signal as soon as we’re out of this cave.”
“Is that portal sealed?” I asked.
“Orielle is doing it now,” he replied slowly, hedging.
“You mean you’re telling her to start it,” I said. I knew he’d hold up on doing it until he was sure I was safe or lost forever.
“Ferko and I are starting out,” he said, not acknowledging.
“Right. Keep watch for any more yiaiwas,” I cautioned and ended the call. The agents could triangulate so long as the phone was on. I sat on the ledge to wait, thinking I could start down to the canyon floor, but I was just too tired and sore to move.
A Song of Redemption Page 38