by Rae Magdon
As Chiron fought the sluggish tide of the river, Eva watched the centaurs pacing the far bank. They kept their bows drawn, although none of the arrows were aimed at them. Instead, they were pointed at the figures standing in the river, making sure that they did not try to escape their torment.
Finally, Chiron reached the opposite shore, emerging from the river dripping with red and black streams. He was not even winded as he pulled himself up onto the bank, but he let out a hoarse cry of surprise as something flopped onto the black sand underneath his great body. It was a person, coated from head to toe in the slimy remnants of the river’s blood. It choked, spat, and tried to breathe, pushing itself up on trembling arms.
Canto XIV:
“But fix thine eyes below; for draweth near
The river of blood, within which boiling is
Whoe’er by violence doth injure others.”
“Kill it!” Nessus bellowed, aiming his arrow at the blood soaked figure beneath Chiron. It seemed to hear his voice and comprehend the danger, because it pulled away from his shouting voice, attempting to scramble to its feet. Nessus drew back the string of his bow, preparing to shoot the wretched soul.
Lilith began to turn her head, unwilling to watch the wretched creature receive its punishment, but movement flashed beside her. Eva had thrown herself off of Chiron’s broad back and landed in the sand, blocking the figure with her body. “Don’t.” Her grip tightened around staff, and her eyes narrowed with determination.
Nessus snorted. He pawed at the ground with his great hooves. “Save your pity, human. This thing does not deserve it. Only murderous souls are punished here, and this one was up past its head in blood. It probably hasn’t breathed air in hundreds of years. Stand aside and let me finish it.”
Lilith slid down from Chiron’s back before Eva could speak and walked to stand beside her, subtly positioning herself in between her lover and the points of the arrows. She could heal, but Eva was still vulnerable to wounds in Sheol. “This isn’t a battle you want to fight,” she said. Her muscles tensed as she balanced on the edge of a shift. “Let us go, and leave this thing to fend for itself. It was clever enough to escape the river, and it’s none of your concern anymore.”
Nessus reared up on his hind legs, his hooves swinging through the air before he thumped back down onto the sand. “I said, stand aside! The sinner must be dealt with!” Lady Godiva dismounted as well, and the three of them stared at the line of armed centaurs behind Nessus. With a sinking feeling, Lilith realized exactly what Eva had gotten them in to. If the centaurs decided to shoot, there would be no time to run.
“I will give you one last chance, First One. You and your pet human will stand aside, or you will die along with the murderer.”
Lilith nearly gave in to the threads of power tugging at her limbs and melted into her other body, but then, she saw Chiron draw his bow. He nocked an arrow and pulled it back with his powerful arm, aiming it directly at Nessus. His hands held firm and steady, but his eyes seemed torn as he trained the point on his leader.
“Put the bow down, Chiron,” Nessus barked. “Your pity is wasted here, just like the human’s.”
“I will not let you kill these people simply to punish one damned soul,” Chiron said. “They must continue their journey. The Master has already chosen them.”
“The Master is not here!” Nessus brayed, not bothering to draw his own bow. “There is only One Master, and He does not care about the fate of a single soul cursed to hell.” Lilith did not move. She remained frozen between the two great beasts, waiting for one of them to back down.
The twang of a bowstring broke the tense silence, and the wooden shaft of an arrow seemed to sprout from Nessus’s throat. Blood spurted from his jugular as he flailed in confusion and pain. His hooves drummed against the ground, and he toppled over, clutching desperately at his throat. The other centaurs nearly dropped their weapons in shock, obviously stunned that someone had dared to hurt their leader. Lilith’s wings erupted from her back, and her claws extended into wicked curves. “Run!” she shouted, giving Eva a solid push between the shoulders.
But to her dismay, Eva ignored her. She crouched beside the bloodied figure on the ground instead, trying to help it up. When both of them began to slip along the uneven bank, Lilith rolled her eyes and grabbed the damned soul’s sticky red arm, hauling it along behind her. After the first few wobbling steps, it seemed to find some sense of balance and began running alongside her, kicking up sand with its feet.
“Watch it!” Lilith curled one wing over her head to block the grit, scowling at the thing she had rescued. It kept running, and she let go of its elbow, risking a few precious seconds to steal a backward glance over her shoulder. To her relief, Eva and Lady Godiva were trailing close behind, and the centaurs did not seem to be giving chase.
Once they were no longer in sight, Lilith came to a stop near the edge of the river, scowling as she shook her claws free of blood. Whatever had crawled out of the Phlegethon must have been there for hundreds of years at least, judging by the mess.
Eva stopped at her side a few moments later, bending over and bracing her hands on her knees as she caught her breath. “Why aren’t they coming after us?” she panted.
Lilith gestured at the waterfall they had seen earlier. It seemed to defy physics, oozing slowly over a steep drop in the rock instead of spilling over like water. “Chiron must be keeping them occupied,” she said. “After he shoots a few more of them, they’ll be so busy punishing him for challenging Nessus that they won’t have time to come after us.”
Eva gave her a horrified look. “What? We have to go help him!” She began to turn back around, but Lilith caught her arm.
“I think you’re heroics have gotten us in enough trouble for one Circle. Besides, Chiron cannot die in Hell. Where else would he go? The worst the other centaurs can do is hurt him. You, however, can die very easily, and if we go back, they’re certain to kill us.”
“Well, technically, I would just go back to Heaven...” Lady Godiva began to say. Lilith glared at their guide, and her voice trailed off. “But I don’t want to see Eva die, of course, or fail in our quest.”
“Would the three of you stop blathering and keep running? I don’t want to go back in that river! I’ve been stuck there with my head underwater for the past four centuries.”
Lilith sighed, slowly turning toward the bloodied figure that she had managed to rescue against her better judgment. Upon closer inspection, its gender became obvious, and she realized that she was looking at a woman. She was abnormally tall, with wild curls and a severe looking face. She was still covered from head to toe in blood, but otherwise, she seemed relatively unharmed.
“They aren’t chasing us,” she said flatly. “And as for you, I don’t care what you do with yourself now, but the three of us are going on to Judecca.” She turned away from the strange woman, searching for the path that they had lost while they were fleeing from the centaurs.
“What? You’re leaving?” the woman asked, giving her a panicked look. “Well, I’m coming with you. I’m not stupid. If Nessus and his band come after me, I want to be near someone who has claws and wings.” She spoke with the confidence of someone who fully expected her demands to be met without any argument.
“And what makes you think we will allow it?” Lilith snapped. Talking to this soul was proving to be even more irritating than saving its life.
“Because you’re about to go into the Eighth Circle, and you’re going to need all the fighters you can get when you go up against the Malebolge. I can help you.”
“Help us?” Lady Godiva asked. Lilith noticed her studying the woman with interest, almost as if she was trying to peer past the blood and make out what was underneath. “How do you propose to help us?”
The woman grinned. “I guess I haven’t introduced myself. Grace O’Malley – pirate, trickster, somet
imes-Queen, and all-around vagabond at your service.” She glanced at Lilith before letting her gaze linger on Lady Godiva. “Maybe you’ve heard of me?”
Lilith rolled her eyes. “Not likely,” she snorted as Lady Godiva gave an apologetic shrug of her shoulders.
“Queen of Umaill? The Sea Queen of Connaught? Granuaile?” None of the names elicited a response, and Grace heaved a sigh. “Just my luck. I’ve been rescued by a group of idiots.”
“I guess the name Grace O’Malley is kind of familiar,” Eva said. “But you don’t look much like a pirate...”
“Well, what did you expect a pirate to look like after a few centuries in Hell?” Grace grumbled. “I couldn’t exactly take my sword with me. Anyway, as for how I can help you... isn’t it obvious? You’re going to need as many fighters as you can find to get past the demons.”
Lilith eyed Grace shrewdly, trying to decide how truthful she was being. Spending the past several millennia on the surface stalking humans as her prey had made her adept at reading their deceptions. Unfortunately, this woman seemed to be telling the truth. She had the broad shoulders of a warrior, and as much as Lilith hated to admit it, her reasons for coming with them were sound. No one travelled through Sheol alone if they could help it, and after a few centuries in the Phlegethon, fighting the Malebolge probably seemed like a vacation. “The Malebolge might be a problem,” she conceded.
“How much of a problem?” Eva asked.
Lilith reached out to rest her hand on Eva’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about them. As long as you’re under my protection, they can’t hurt you. It’s against our laws for one demon to torture another’s thrall.” She turned back to Grace O’Malley. “But why do you want to go into the Eighth Circle? I can’t protect you, and it isn’t exactly a pleasant place. You would be better off braving the higher Circles.”
Grace O’Malley shook her head. “I favor my odds with four, thanks all the same.”
Lilith wanted to protest, but instead, she sighed and gave a careless shrug of her shoulders. “Well, if you want to put yourself in mortal danger, who am I to stop you?” She turned and walked towards the waterfall, her wings shifting against her back. “Come with us or not, I don’t care. We need to get through the other two rings of the Seventh Circle before we run into anything worse than Centaurs.”
“There isn’t much worse than Centaurs,” Grace muttered, hurrying to catch up with her.
Lilith ignored her, peering over the edge of the waterfall instead. The thick red ribbons of blood vanish once they hit the bottom, and clean water pooled below, flowing into a fast, clean river. Its banks were lined with rigid, brittle-looking trees that stretched out in what seemed to be a never-ending forest.
Grace stared down at the clear stream, and her face broke out into a wide grin. “Thank God. A bath is exactly what I need right now.” She hurried to scramble over the ledge, picking her way down the steep slope with a surprising amount of speed.
“Don’t drink it!” Lady Godiva called after her. “Or it will... put you to sleep...” She heaved a sigh when she noticed that Grace was not listening and followed the pirate down toward the river.
“And she called us idiots,” Lilith muttered, shaking her head and unfurling her wings. She turned towards Eva and extended her arms. “Would you like a ride down?”
Eva took her hands, running a thumb over her knuckles and the side of her palm. “I would love one.” She turned, offering Lilith her back and holding out her arms.
Lilith slid her hands beneath them, pulling Eva tight against her chest. “Don’t worry, it’s not a long drop.” She pushed off of the ground, unfurling her wings as she flew up into the air. They passed over the edge of the cliff, and she peered over Eva’s shoulder, looking down at the endless stretch of trees below. The forest was as large as it had looked from on top of the ledge, and she could not help being impressed by its vastness. The sharp, twisting branches were too thick to fly through, but she spotted a clear patch beneath one of the trees by the river. She landed a few yards away from the stream, holding onto Eva’s waist until she was sure that she had regained her balance.
“Just looking at that water is making me thirsty,” Eva said, staring longingly at the river. She swung her pack off of her back and set it onto the ground, pulling out her canteen.
Lilith frowned as Eva unscrewed the top and lifted it to her lips. “Be sure not to drink it all. There’s nowhere left to fill it again.”
Eva held out the canteen with a sigh, and Lilith took it from her. As she bent down to put it back into the open pack, a red blur flew beside her. She jerked her head up just in time to see Grace O’Malley charge for the water. She threw her arms up and dove in headfirst, breaking the surface with a loud splash. When she emerged, it was to let out a loud, joyful yell and toss back her wet hair.
Lilith narrowed her eyes as Grace ducked underneath the water again, blood pooling around her as she attempted to wash herself. “It was a bad idea to let her come along. We don’t know anything about her other than the fact that Minos sentenced her to the Seventh Circle.”
“I hardly think she was lying to us. Besides, we did save her.” Eva sat down and began rummaging through the pack. “Do you think my clothes will fit her?”
“Not a chance,” Lilith snorted. She leaned against the side of the tree, turning in time to watch Grace scramble onto the bank and stand beside Lady Godiva. She was dripping wet, but much cleaner than she had been when she emerged from the Phlegethon. “She’s far too tall to fit into your pants, and too broad-shouldered for your shirts.”
Eva gave her a long look. “Tall and broad-shouldered, you say?”
Lilith looked at Grace, and then down at the pack sitting in Eva’s lap. “Absolutely not,” she said, folding her arms stubbornly across her chest. “I only have one set of clothes left in there, and she’s already ruined this one with all the blood sloughing off her.”
Eva ignored her complaints and pulled her last shirt out of the pack. “Sorry to disagree, but you ruined your clothes long before she did. You need holes for your wings anyway.”
“But they’re mine!” Lilith reached for the shirt, but Eva stood up before she could get her claws into the fabric, holding them out as Grace and Lady Godiva came to rejoin them.
Grace took the shirt without saying thank you and pulled it over her wet hair. “Much better,” she sighed, rolling her shoulders and shaking out her damp curls. “Don’t suppose you have a pair of pants in there, too?”
“Yes,” Eva said at the same time that Lilith snarled, “No…” Unfortunately, Eva got to the pack first, and she could only glower as Grace finished putting on the last of her clothes. She pulled back her upper lip over her pointed teeth, but either their new companion did not notice, or she was not intimidated. Instead, she studied the trees that surrounded them. Lilith reluctantly followed her gaze. None of the forest’s trees bore leaves, and their bark was an ashen shade of grey. The branches were crooked and tangled, and many of them were covered in thorns.
“It doesn’t look like there’s a path anywhere,” Grace said.
Lady Godiva reached out, briefly touching Grace O’Malley’s hand with her own before pointing in the opposite direction of the river. “There isn’t a path, but I know the way.”
Canto XV:
I heard on all sides lamentations uttered,
And person none beheld I who might make them,
Whence, utterly bewildered, I stood still.
Eva followed Lady Godiva through the dense thicket of trees, pushing aside knotted, thorny limbs, occasionally wincing or crying out when one tore at her flesh. Whispers rose around her in a great swell every time she bent the branches back, but there were no other people in sight. “This place is creepy,” she said under her breath, afraid to raise her voice any louder. She swallowed down the tight lump in her throat and set aside her uneasiness, walking
in the path that Lilith’s boots had left for her. “I can hear voices, but there’s no one here except for us.”
“We aren’t exactly alone...” Lilith paused and pointed at one of the narrower branches. “Break it off. See what happens.”
She reached out and took the edge of a small twig, snapping it from the bough. Something warm and sticky ran over her palm, and she looked down to see a crimson stain spreading rapidly across her hand. At first, she thought she had cut herself, but there was no pain. Instead, the red liquid was seeping from the mangled twig. She shouted in surprise and dropped it onto the ground. “Was that... blood?”
Lilith nodded. “This is the Forest of Suicides. These trees were all human once. They chose to take their own lives selfishly, as Judas did when he committed his final sin.”
Trying to ignore the sickening twist in her stomach, Eva turned back towards the tree. To her horror, blood dripped like sap from the broken bough. When a voice whispered from inside of the trunk, she nearly jumped backwards into Lilith. “Why have you broken me?” it asked, dead leaves shuddering on its crooked branches. “Do you have no spirit of pity?”
“I – I’m sorry, I didn’t know…” she stammered, trying to back away. Only the solid weight of Lilith’s hand on her shoulder prevented her from stumbling. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Lilith narrowed her eyes at the tree. “I’m sure it hurt no more than the grief that taking your own life caused the living.”
Surprised by the unmistakably bitter words, Eva looked up at Lilith. There was no pity in her face. “Why does this forest bother you so much?”
“Do you know how many times over the past several thousand years I’ve wished I could die?” Lilith’s grip eased, and she pulled her claws back before they tightened to the point of pain around her shoulder. “Even without my soul, I know what it is to live with the constant guilt of your actions. Suicide is the coward’s way of avoiding their conscience’s punishment.”