“Who prostrated?” I mumbled. Jude had come to me reluctantly and his attitude had hardly recommended him. But I was trying to give him a pass because he was obviously in a tremendous amount of distress over the loss of Wade and the cubs.
“Find a way,” he said.
“Do not speak to Madeline in that fashion,” Nathaniel said. I was a little surprised that he’d stepped forward so readily to defend me. Nathaniel, like Lucifer, generally likes to appear above the fray.
Jude whirled and turned on him, his fists clenched. “I’ll speak to her how I please. You’re not free and clear on this as far as I’m concerned, so I don’t think you’re in any position to tell me what to do.”
“Nathaniel is the one who found the sigil for us,” I pointed out. “We didn’t have a clue to go on before that.”
“Yes, and isn’t it convenient that he managed to discover something so small in a forest this size,” Jude sneered.
I glanced at Nathaniel, momentarily unsure. It was true that I didn’t think of Nathaniel as trustworthy. I considered him an angel who would always put his own desires first, and those desires were generally not compatible with anyone who wasn’t completely and totally preoccupied with status in the courts.
He was shallow and vain and annoyingly pompous, but he didn’t seem to have any motivation for harming Wade or the pack, and I told Jude so.
“How do you know what motivations he has?” Jude said, turning back to me with a reddened face. “How can you know the secrets of the hearts of the fallen? Just how stupid can you possibly be?”
Gabriel started to say something to this but I waved him away. I didn’t need him to stand in front of me. I could handle Jude.
“You may want to rethink your comment,” I said through my teeth. I felt the familiar surge of power that accompanied the rising tide of anger. I’d tried to be patient with Jude, to be sympathetic to his plight. But I didn’t have to stand still and let him swipe at me. “Given that your alpha is in negotiations with Lucifer, it would not be politic for you to insult his granddaughter.”
“Politics,” Jude spat. “Politics mean nothing to me. They are an excuse for Lucifer to find a way to have dominion over all things.”
I thought that Jude was probably right, but I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of agreeing with him.
“The point here is not what Lucifer wants or doesn’t want,” I said angrily. The snake on my right palm tingled, like it was trying to get my attention. I ignored it. “The point is that we’re all here to help you find Wade and the cubs and you’ve offered nothing more helpful than suspicion and name-calling.”
Jude’s face was purple with rage. His hands flexed into his fists, and I thought for a minute that he might actually hit me.
My right hand suddenly felt as though it were being squeezed between the fangs of a snake, and I cried out.
“What’s the matter with you now?” Beezle asked.
I glared down at the snake tattoo. “There are other ways of getting my attention.”
The snake writhed, as if to say, “I tried to be nice, but you weren’t listening.”
“And now I am,” I said. Warmth spread under the skin, starting at the head of the snake, and coursed up my arm. A minute later I knew what I had to do.
“I’m not at all certain that I like having you there,” I muttered.
It was very disconcerting to have an independent entity working through my body, especially an entity so closely aligned with Lucifer. But there was no denying that the snake tattoo had helped me get out of a sticky situation or two.
The snake winked at me.
Beezle tapped a claw on my head. “Are you talking to your hand? You look like a crazy person.”
I looked up from contemplating my unwanted parasite and found the other four staring at me. Jude’s rage seemed to have receded somewhat in the face of my strange behavior.
There was no point in trying to explain, so I just waved them all away from the rock that we were huddled around. “Stand back.”
Wonder of wonders, they all listened without asking why, backing away several feet. Maybe I should act like a nutcase more often.
I held my right hand in front of me so that the snake tattoo faced the sigil carved in the rock. Again, I felt an uncomfortable heat just under the skin, and I realized that the warmth pulsed from my heartstone to my hand.
This, then, was Lucifer’s power, so long dormant inside of me. I’d felt it once before, when I had taken Lucifer’s sword from Nathaniel, before I’d entered the Maze.
The clearing was lit by an intense yellow light. I knew that my eyes were blazing with the magic of the Morningstar.
The sigil on the rock glowed red in response, and a swirling vortex appeared inside the symbol. The vortex grew, sweeping leaves and branches and other detritus from the clearing inside it. I dropped my hand and beckoned to the others.
“Come on!” I shouted. “We don’t know how long it will stay open.”
Gabriel stepped in front of me, making sure that he entered the portal before I did. Samiel gave Nathaniel a dirty look when Nathaniel tried to get in front of him. He shouldered Nathaniel out of his way and Jude followed suit.
One by one they disappeared into the portal. It was pretty clear that they all considered Nathaniel a second-class citizen. It was equally clear that none of them considered me capable enough to be the first through the portal. Except, that was, Nathaniel, who knew firsthand just what I was capable of.
“After you, my lady,” he said, and sketched a little bow.
“I hate portals,” Beezle grumbled as I stepped forward.
I felt a moment of trepidation. We didn’t know where the portal went. And we could end up smack in the middle of a demon court, or a world that was toxic to humans, or who knew what else. But the trail for Wade and the cubs ended here, and there were no other leads to follow.
I went into the portal.
There was a tremendous pressure between my ears. My eyeballs felt like they were turning to jelly. Beezle squeezed his claws so hard on my shoulder that I was sure they would leave a mark. I closed my eyes and heard only the relentless, swirling wind of the vortex.
The pressure abruptly ceased as we emerged. I tried for a graceful landing but I’ve never managed one yet despite some recent practice with this mode of travel.
I barreled right into Gabriel, who stood in front of the portal. He caught me easily around the waist. Gabriel has some experience with my ineptitude with portals.
I sucked in my breath at the feeling of his hands through my coat. The heat of him penetrated through layers of clothing. Stars exploded in his eyes.
“Ahem,” said a gravelly voice close to my ear. “Before the two of you head into la-la land, you might want to remember that you have an audience.”
Gabriel lowered me to the ground, slowly. I didn’t look around but I felt my cheeks heating in embarrassment. I don’t like drawing attention to my feelings for Gabriel.
He closed his eyes. When he opened them there was a clean canvas of black, the stars muted by shadow, and he let me go.
Nathaniel emerged from the portal behind me, and I turned around in time to see it closing. Where the portal had been, there was another of the demon sigils carved into rock.
I finally took the time to look around. We were crowded in a low cave formed of a strange white rock that gave off a phosphorescent glow. The air was heavy and humid. Water dripped down the walls of the cave and formed puddles beneath our feet. There was only one exit.
Everyone looked at me expectantly.
“Oh, sure, I can’t go through the portal first but I get to be the one who makes the life-or-death decisions,” I muttered.
I went to the mouth of the tunnel that led away from the cave. The pale gleam of rock stretched from the cave, seemingly endless, and into dark nothingness.
“I don’t like this,” I said.
“This is where the trail brought us,” Jude sa
id. “We need to go forward.”
“Yeah, and if a pack of demons comes from the other direction, we’ll all be jammed up in that narrow passage,” I said. “There’s not a lot of room to fight in there.”
“For our enemies, either,” Gabriel pointed out.
“That means that there will be just as much useless slaughter for them as for us,” I said. “We might take out some of them but we’ll suffer stupid losses in the meantime.”
“Well, what do you suggest we do?” Jude snapped. “Go back through the portal and go home and wait and hope that the demons give Wade and the cubs back to us?”
“No,” I said, frustrated.
I knew that we had to go forward. There was no other way. But when I looked down that tunnel I felt a powerful surge of foreboding.
“Okay,” I said. “Here’s what we’re going to do. I don’t want us to get stopped up in that tunnel. So we’re going to string out in a formation ten steps apart. Beezle will go first…”
“Why me?” Beezle asked. “If you’re looking for someone to take stupid chances, you’re looking at the wrong gargoyle.”
“Because you’re the smallest, and you can fly ahead and scout for us with the least risk,” I said impatiently. “I’ll follow at the head of the column.”
“No, you will not,” Gabriel said.
Samiel shook his head in agreement.
“You both have to get over this idea that I’m helpless,” I said. “Besides, there’s a small chance that any demons we encounter will back off if I show them Lucifer’s symbol.”
“And what if they do not, as you say, ‘back off’?” Nathaniel asked.
“Well, it’s not as though I’m powerless. We’re not arguing about this,” I said to Gabriel and Samiel. “I’m going first. Then Gabriel, ten steps behind me. Then Jude, Samiel and Nathaniel.”
I ordered them thus because I assumed if we ran into trouble, Nathaniel would turn around and run in the other direction and therefore free up some space in the narrow tunnel. I’d never seen any evidence that he was particularly skilled in hand-to-hand combat, and he seemed to value his own skin above anyone else’s.
“If Beezle does run into anything, he’ll come back to us and raise the alarm. Don’t crowd up on me if it comes to a fight. Stay in your positions. We’ll have more room to maneuver and the demons won’t be sure how many of us there are if we’re spread out.”
None of them looked particularly thrilled by my plan, and I have to say that I wasn’t overwhelmed by my brilliance, either. But it was the best I could come up with, and none of them had anything better on offer.
“Let’s go,” I said.
Beezle flew off my shoulder, muttering imprecations at me for forcing an old gargoyle to do such tedious and difficult work.
“There’s a doughnut in it for you if you do your job and stop complaining,” I said.
Beezle looked contemplative. “Deal. Of course, I fully expect that we’ll all be killed by this idiocy.”
And with that he took off down the tunnel. I waited a few moments, and then followed behind him. I very much hoped that Beezle was wrong, and that my half-assed plan wasn’t about to get us all killed.
4
I CREPT FORWARD INTO THE PASSAGE. THE CEILING WAS even lower here than in the cave. Since I am shorter than average, the top of the tunnel was an inch or two above my head. I glanced behind me to see the others filing in silently at the proscribed distance. The men were all hunched over. The wings of the angels scraped lightly against the walls and ceilings, and downy feathers drifted in their wake.
The tunnel gleamed with the same strange light as the cave, but it was fainter. I couldn’t see Beezle ahead of us. He’d obviously gotten a little overzealous with his scouting duties. My heart beat wildly in my chest and I made a conscious effort to silence the sound of my breath. Several minutes passed, and I felt the frantic build of adrenaline inside me, anticipating the attack that would not come.
I became aware of an insistent pressure at my hip and could hear a faint buzzing sound. It belatedly registered that my phone was ringing. I pulled it from my pocket and read J.B.’s name on the screen before stuffing it away again. There was no way I was answering the call right now. Never mind the fact that we could be attacked at any minute—J.B. was probably only calling to yell at me about something.
The fact that I was picking up a cell signal told me that we were still on the Earth that I knew, and that gave me a little comfort. It meant that we didn’t have such a long way to get home. If we got home at all, that was.
Beezle suddenly loomed out of the darkness in front of me and I swallowed a startled scream.
“Are you trying to give me a heart attack?” I hissed.
He landed on my shoulder and whispered in my ear. “You have to see this. Tell the others to stay here.”
“Oh, yeah, like they’ll go for that,” I said.
“Order them to stay if you have to,” he said, and his voice dropped even further, until I could barely hear. I knew he was trying to dodge the supernatural hearing of certain members of our party. “You don’t want Jude to see until you can prepare him.”
My stomach dropped. Beezle must have found the cubs.
I turned and waited for Gabriel to catch up to me and then signaled the others to stop. Gabriel looked terribly uncomfortable hunched over. I waved him closer and indicated he should use his wings to block us from the others. He crouched a little farther down so he could close us in the private circle of his wings.
Beezle’s found something, I signed. Gabriel had taught sign language to both Samiel and me, and it was pretty handy just now. Jude’s hearing is unbelievable. I was surprised he hadn’t heard Beezle.
What is it? Gabriel signed back.
I don’t know. I’m going to go ahead with Beezle. I want you to keep the others here until I get back.
Gabriel shook his head.
This is no time for…I realized I didn’t know the sign for “testosterone,” so I just said it aloud. Beezle wouldn’t lead me into harm; you know that.
I do not like you going by yourself, Gabriel replied.
I won’t be by myself. I’ll be with Beezle. Please, just stay here and make sure the others do, too. Especially Jude.
Gabriel looked like he wanted to argue some more but I shook my head at him. We didn’t have time for this.
He nodded and backed away from me, and Beezle and I went forward. I hoped that Gabriel would actually listen to me and keep the others behind. If the cubs had been slaughtered by the demons, I didn’t want Jude to go on a suicidal rampage. I was certain Wade would want Jude to take care of their pack.
Beezle and I went forward into the tunnel. I couldn’t see any turnings or junctions, just the same endless expanse of white rock, glowing faintly in the dark. I was reminded uncomfortably of my time in the Maze, the dark unknown stretching out before me, taking my measure, waiting for just the right moment to break my heart.
After several minutes I felt Beezle’s claws tighten on my shoulder, a sure sign of his growing tension.
“How much farther?” My voice was hardly louder than my breath, but it still sounded like a scream in the eerie stillness. We had long since passed out of the sight and sound of the others.
“Very soon now,” Beezle growled.
The tunnel abruptly turned, and I followed it. Beezle put his beak close to my ear.
“Quietly.”
I tiptoed forward, sure that the blood pounding in my body would be loud enough to give us away. At the end of the passage there was a brightly lit opening, and beyond that were the sounds of screams and moans.
Gods above and below, I thought. I don’t want to see this.
I steeled myself and crept to the edge of the passage.
The tunnel sloped downward into a wide ramp for perhaps ten or fifteen feet, and then emptied into a huge cavern with soaring phosphorescent ceilings. There were large floodlights attached at intervals along the cavern w
alls. Cables snaked along the ground, attached to a humming generator in the far corner of the room.
The wolf cubs were all in human form. There were about twenty of them, ranging in age from maybe eighteen months to ten years. They were all bound to hard metal chairs and their eyelids had been taped open. In front of each eyelid was a small object that looked like a digital video camera, except that the camera emitted targeted pulses of light at the cubs’ eyes.
I didn’t know exactly what the cameras were doing to the cubs, but whatever it was couldn’t be good. Several of the smaller children were crying, and a couple of them looked like they had fainted, but since their eyes were forced open, the camera continued doing its gruesome work.
On the opposite side of my perch, at the very front of the cavern, were three demons. All three were humanoid-shaped with dark green scales. They all had wickedly sharp-looking claws, large pointed ears and long simian tails. The end of each tail was tipped with a barb. The left cheek of each demon was branded with the same sigil that we had found on the rock that led to the portal.
They seemed like they ought to be supervising the proceedings, but mostly they appeared bored. One demon had a chair tipped back against the wall and appeared to be dozing with half-closed eyes. The other two were playing some kind of game in the dirt with sticks. There was a lot of arguing and punching involved, although that may have had more to do with the personalities of the demons involved than the actual rules of their pastime.
All seemed immune to the distress of the cubs. I didn’t see any sign of Wade, but there was another opening in the cavern beyond the demons. He could be held in another part of this place, or he could be in another location entirely. The cubs were before me, and obviously in pain, so they were my priority. Once the cubs were free, I could move on to the Wade problem.
The demons looked like they’d be easy enough to take out. The trouble was that they might make noise and raise an alarm, causing who knew how many demon compatriots to come pouring out of the opening behind them. Plus, I had the additional snag of freeing all the cubs and then herding them back to the others.
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