Hard Mettle

by John Hook

  I decided not to increase the size of my glamour as I had learned to do. If this confrontation became violent, it wasn’t going to end well. However, I stood my ground and held his gaze. He moved towards me. His footfalls weren’t heavy and again I was surprised by the way he almost seemed to float closer.

  The large figure stepped up to me. He reminded me of Guido in the alieness I sensed in him, but unlike Guido there was a restrained but dangerous violence just beneath the surface. He stared at me. I held my ground. I almost expected him to sniff me.

  “You are blue.” I tried not to laugh because I didn’t think doing so would improve things, but it was not what I was expecting to come out of his mouth. “I sense the dreaming in you.” His face became darker as he puffed himself back up. “Perhaps that is the secret of your casino.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know about this dreaming, but if this place depended on my abilities, we’d have gone under long ago.”

  I guess there was something he didn’t like in my attitude. I get that a lot. He pulled a knife from under his tunic. A really big knife. It wasn’t metal, of course, but it was carefully edged stone with all but the blade edge having a hard polish. I could tell the edge was sharp.

  “You are mocking me.”

  “No, but that could be arranged.”

  I saw both Anika and Izzy bring up their bows in my peripheral vision. In the next moment, the large figure had dropped to his knees, leaning completely down from the waist. His knife flew. It didn’t hit a very startled Anika, but clearly that was intentional. The knife arced through the air, severing both her bow and her shaft before sinking into a pillar. Izzy had shot off a shaft but it was aimed at where the figure had been standing and passed harmlessly over him. Izzy strung another shaft and Anika rushed towards us. I jumped back and let myself appear larger.

  “Please stop.” I froze. So did Izzy and Anika, although it was hard to stop at that velocity. It was Saripha’s voice, and although she had not shouted, there was command authority in its tone. It was a voice she used only when something was urgent. It worked.

  “Saripha?” I turned in the direction of her voice, hoping I wasn’t about to be blindsided by the interloper. However, he simply stood and came to rest, watching.

  “Quentin, this is Lazitar. He runs the Adaxa Gardens.” Saripha bowed, but there was nothing demure to it; her eyes stayed locked on Lazitar.

  The Adaxa Gardens were legendary in Antanaria. It was the biggest and most luxurious casino in the city, as well as being closest to the wall of the inner city, which, itself, conveyed status. Even though the Lotus Queen had become number two in Antanaria, in size and clientele it wasn’t even close to the Adaxa Gardens. Only the most successful gamblers were even allowed in. It was like getting invited to a millionaire’s private stakes game. Frankly, we had never had much information about the Gardens, so I suspected that Azar or Tweedledum’s and Tweedledee’s spying activities was how Saripha had learned of Lazitar.

  “You should teach your pups more respect,” Lazitar snapped.

  Saripha smiled sweetly, but for just a moment a flicker of energy flashed in her eyes.

  “We got off on the wrong foot, Lazitar, and I apologize for that. However, respect runs both ways. My people are very loyal and they aren’t mine. They chose to be with me.”

  “If you know who I am you know I am not to be trifled with.”

  “Actually, trifling with goons who are too full of themselves is kind of our specialty.” I never could keep my mouth shut. Saripha looked at me sternly, but I could see a slight curl to her lips. It probably didn’t matter because Lazitar looked like he was ignoring me. That happens a lot, too.

  Saripha sighed. “Please, come join me and let’s talk. We both have questions we would like to have answers to, and I suspect we have more reasons to be allies than enemies.”

  “I am not so sure.”

  “There will be plenty of opportunity to act if you don’t agree. Am I such a threat that you can’t afford to wait to find out?” Saripha arched her eyebrows. Lazitar’s face clouded for a moment.

  Suddenly a small purple shape dropped from above and landed in front of Lazitar. Lazitar showed surprise and even let himself step back a bit. Azar stood and smiled. I suspected it was an impish smile, but I’m not that good at calling demon emotions.

  “Yes, they can be annoying.” Azar was obviously broadcasting rather than just projecting to Lazitar. “However, they are not like the others. You would do well to listen first and act later.”

  Lazitar studied Azar.

  “I didn’t know there were any of you left.”

  “I don’t know that I am the last, but it has been a very long time since I have seen another.”

  “You are with them?”

  Azar seemed to think about this for a moment.

  “I am with no one, but I have found it useful to provide them some assistance.”

  “Why?”

  Azar turned and moved to join Saripha. “Come talk with us and find out.”

  Lazitar seemed to hesitate for a moment and then he followed, throwing his shoulders back with the regal posture of a visiting dignitary. Azar turned to me.

  “You too. Join us.”

  I wasn’t sure inviting me was a good idea, but I followed.

  The room Saripha took us to was round, as was a lot of the architecture in the Lotus Queen. This inner room had doors that sealed it off completely, but we rarely used it. It had two large intricately carved chairs at either end of a table, with a few smaller chairs scattered around. Saripha sat at one end and Lazitar sat opposite her at the other end. I had returned to my normal proportions and leaned against the wall. Azar also sat at the table.

  Saripha motioned to Lazitar. “If you wish, I offer you the chance to speak first, out of respect.”

  “I don’t need your permission.”

  It was really taking a major effort to keep my mouth shut. It was a good thing Izzy didn’t come in because we would be making faces.

  Suddenly the room had an electric charge. I was pretty sure it was a by-product of Saripha’s weather witch abilities. Saripha stood and leaned forward on the table. As before, her voice was calm but it carried authority, yet it somehow never lost the compassion in her words.

  “I understand you feel threatened. I also understand that pride becomes more important when you are a slave—the master slave, but a slave no less. However, you are from the ancient families and that requires no false pride.”

  “How dare you call me a slave. What do you know of the ancient families?”

  Saripha sat back down again. I tried to keep my smile to myself. She had finally gotten Lazitar into the conversation.

  “Not as much as I would like. That is why I sought an audience with you, but I could never get through your minions to you.”

  “My people don’t bother me with trifles.”

  “Apparently, then, I am no longer a trifle.”

  “You have taken over larger and larger casinos in a very short time. You could only be doing that with some kind of magical agency.”

  “Surprisingly, although I am capable of magic, I simply treat my customers well and let them win.”

  “And yet you supply the fewest clients to the dream chamber.”

  “Ah, so that’s why they have applied pressure on you to do something about me.”

  “No one…” Lazitar stood, sputtering.

  Lazitar looked suddenly at Azar with a combination of sharpness and surprise. Obviously, Azar had projected something for his mind alone. Lazitar sat. Azar continued for all.

  “I have told Saripha much of the ancient families… and what I know of the dreaming. And her clients tell her of the ancient legends that are passed down to newcomers even as those who once knew are cut down on the other side of the dream chamber. And when those have worked in the mines return unknowing here, they are once again told the legends they once passed down. Like everything ancient here, it hangs on desp
ite every effort to eradicate it by the Angels.”

  Lazitar’s face became very stormy at the mention of the Angels.

  Saripha continued. “I don’t care about this casino empire I have built other than the opportunity it afforded me to help people here while I learned what I needed to learn.”

  “And what did you learn, witch?”

  I really wanted to smack the back of Lazitar’s head, but I decided that it really wouldn’t help anything. This was Saripha’s show and I had to let her play it out. I figured it had to be delicate because she had never really let me in on what we were waiting for. I knew whatever it was, it was for Guido.

  “I learned that we might be able to help each other.”

  “What possible help could you be to me? And what makes you think I need help?”

  “I came to this city to free someone. I became convinced that the dreaming was the key as I believe that is how he is being held captive.”

  Lazitar scowled. “You are wasting your time. Look for your friend at the mines.”

  Saripha smiled. “No, my friend, like you, is special. However, his fate is even more ignoble.”

  “I still don’t understand what this has to do with me.”

  Saripha drew a breath. “As I learned more of the dreaming and the ancient families, I found legends of one particularly powerful family who built this city and ruled this part of Hell—that’s what we call this world—for a long time, until, legend has it, the Angels shattered the sky and spread fire.”

  That startled me. I suddenly flashed back to some of the strange dreams I kept having with the girl with dark blue skin.

  “In the legends, this family was powerful and sometimes benevolent and sometimes cruel. However, they used the dreaming to allow others to journey through their minds and find hidden potential, to awaken dormant abilities. And now, the Angels control the dreaming.”

  Lazitar sat silent. He wasn’t giving away anything.

  “I realized you were most likely a scion of that ancient family.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “Because you are clearly involved in some sort of unholy deal. They give you power and influence over the condemned, special status, but that also means they must have special power over you that makes you go along with the perversion. You are too powerful to simply go along with them.”

  “They have over me what they have over us all. I became powerful because of my skill with the Adaxa Gardens.”

  “Named for your grandmother.”

  Lazitar looked startled.

  Saripha smiled again. “What I have learned, from Azar’s ancient books, from the legends and not a little scrying, is that the dreaming is not a power, it is a person. The dreamer.”

  Lazitar looked at Azar and then at me.

  “I sense the dreaming in him. How did he get it?”

  “Gazardik.” It was Azar in our heads.

  Lazitar’s eyes widened. “I thought the Angels had destroyed those.”

  I shrugged. “Let’s just say the Angels, powerful as they are, seem to not be as in control of things as they pretend. And they have a bad habit of underestimating us.”

  Lazitar turned back to Saripha.

  “I still don’t see why you think you can help me.”

  I noticed he was no longer insisting he didn’t need help.

  “Because we think we can do something about the hold they have over you.”

  “And what hold would that be?” I was pretty sure he thought Saripha was bluffing and trying to trick information out of him.

  “At first I thought you must be using the dreaming, given your lineage, but then I realized they wouldn’t leave you running a casino if that were the case.”

  “I can do…” Lazitar paused, thinking. “…some things.”

  “Adaxa is alive. They have her. They’re using her.”

  Lazitar looked like an experienced gambler that had just been blown away by the hand laid down by the newcomer at the table. All of the swagger and bravado drained out of his body and he stared at Saripha, mouth agape.

  “And there is nothing you can do about that,” Lazitar spat out, bitter.

  “I will admit we don’t know yet, but we have to try. We have taken on Shades and Manitors and even the Angels and we are still here.”

  “Why do you care?”

  “If selfish motives make more sense to you, I believe only Adaxa can free Kanarchan.”

  “Your friend? Where is he?”

  “You know the throne atop the tallest tower in the inner city?”

  “The statue?”

  Saripha shook her head. “That isn’t a statue. In that form that appears as a Magister is actually a living Manitor.”

  Lazitar sat back, reflecting.

  “He is more than just a Manitor. How comes a human to love such a being”?”

  Saripha’s face softened and beamed.

  “Even in Hell, the world is full of wonder.”

  “Then I am sorry to say your mission is doomed. They hold Adaxa in the inner city as well, but there is no way to break into her cell.”

  I walked over to the table. Lazitar eyed me cautiously. I plunked down the maps Izzy and I had carried in front of him. He looked at me and then looked at the maps.

  “What is this?”

  “I’m betting this is where they are keeping Adaxa.” I pointed to the top floor of the building Izzy and I had just explored.

  “You are right, the top floor of the tower on the left of the tallest one. How did you know?”

  “We just got back from exploring that tower.”

  “You can enter the inner city?”

  I grinned. “I told you, they underestimate us.”

  “You’ve seen the door?”

  “Yeah, tricky stuff.”

  “It’s a science not of this world. Maybe not of this universe.”

  “And you must do what they want or…” I was pressing him.

  “If I do not carry out their wishes—produce people for the dream chamber—and maintain control of the city, they promise she will have a most painful death.”

  “And you believe them?” Saripha stepped into the conversation. I nodded and returned to the wall. This was hers.

  “It doesn’t matter what I believe. I’m not a fool. They need her dreaming. You are right, it requires the dreamer and they would never actually harm her, though they might cause her pain. None of that matters as no one can enter her chamber to know.”

  “Ah,” I blurted out, then looked at Saripha.

  “Go ahead, Quentin. Azar already told me what you would find.”

  “I think we can open that door.”

  Lazitar leapt up and had me pinned to the wall before I had even registered him bounding across the room.

  “You must tell me how! Now.”

  “Easy, Genghis. Actually I can’t do it by myself. My power alone isn’t enough or we’d have already done it.”

  Lazitar reluctantly released his grasp on me and turned back to Saripha.

  “You think you can do this?”

  “I think it can be done. You work with us and agree to help us protect our interests. We free Adaxa and you agree to let her help us free Kanarchan. Then we’ll depart and can each protect our own, although you and Adaxa will be more than welcome to join us.”

  “Join you?”

  I stepped away from the wall. “We don’t plan on stopping until we have put an end to the Angels and freed all humans from pain farms.”

  “Then I will celebrate your noble death when it happens.”

  “See, that’s what they do.”

  Lazitar looked confused.

  “Underestimate me.”

  Saripha injected herself back into the conversation. “Whether you think we can do all we say, will you help us?”

  Lazitar looked back at Saripha. He held her gaze for what felt like minutes, looking for something. She didn’t blink.

  “If you can convince me that you ca
n free Adaxa, I will do whatever I can for you.”

  4.

  “I suspect something has changed around here.” I looked at Roland.

  “You think?”

  I had crossed the desert and mountains with Izzy to return to Zaccora so we could bring back Blaise. Although we could have made use of Tweedledee and Tweedledum, longer distances tax them. I preferred to have them both in Antanaria in case Lazitar turned out to be an unreliable partner. He had no interest in Guido and was only doing this to free his grandmother. At least he was honest about it, but there was something about him that made me very wary. I was worried he might think his chances would be better if he controlled the situation and took that control out of our hands. Saripha could certainly handle herself, but I was concerned anyway.

  I had intended to show up with Izzy, recruit Blaise and head right back, but now something startling and new had just entered the picture.

  Roland met us as we entered the city. The rooftop observers had obviously alerted him. With little more than a greeting he had immediately brought us down to the chasm that separated our part of Zaccora from the rest of the city. The other side of the gap was where the Dark Men who remained loyal to the late Gerod still ran things. We stood at the head of the bridge that we had collapsed in order to cut them off.

  Across from us, the bloodied corpses of two gray demons had been strung up on two remaining pillars of the old bridge. Every so often we would hear cries of distress.

  “Do you hear that?” Roland asked. He knew I heard. He was looking for something else.

  “Sounds painful.”

  “What else?”

  “They don’t sound female.”

  Roland shot me with his thumb and forefinger.

  “Hey, you copied that move from me.”

  “The need to find simple ways to communicate with you.” Roland looked at Izzy and they shared a grin.

  “So, let’s put it together. Gray demons with throats slashed and male cries of pain. While there are male sex slaves, they’re a minority. So I’m left guessing the tide has somehow been turned.”

  “But how?” Izzy gestured toward the other part of the city. “The sex slaves were a small contingent. How would they have overcome both Dark Men and demons?”