by Leo Romero
I was sure he was about to cave, but instead, something snapped in his mind and he gave his head a brisk shake. “No deal, StoneAngel!” he said, coming back to his senses. “You think I’m as foolish as Death himself to play a hand of cards with you?”
I growled to myself in frustration. “Come on, Bracken, Death just got unlucky. Lightning doesn’t strike in the same place twice. Who knows, the cards might fall your way.”
He looked away, his eyes gleaming. He was biting. He wanted to play; heck the guy probably hadn’t enjoyed a good game of cards in eons.
“Come on, you could do with letting that green hair down,” I told him, attempting to hammer the point. “All this being king and all can be tiring. What’s a little fun game of cards between friends, huh?”
He began thrumming the armrest of his throne with his fingertips, while behind his eyes, his mind worked. I watched in anticipation. If I could get him into a game of cards, I had a chance of getting outta here. If not, then who knew what would happen to me.
I tongued my bottom lip, my neck craned forward. Come on, please. Just say yes, say yes, say yes. Say yes!
“No!” he said defiantly.
I whipped way head away. Oh for—
“You will pay your debt to the Underworld, fallen angel. Take him away!”
Before I could respond, I was shoved away from the Fae King. “You’re making a mistake, Bracken!” I shouted over my shoulder. “I’ve done nothing wrong!”
But it was pointless, the stubborn old fool had made up his mind. In his eyes, I was guilty and that was that. Now I had to meet my fate. I was thrown through a door and down some stairs where the castle dungeons awaited me.
Chapter 9
I was taken deep down beneath the castle where the jailor was ready and waiting for me. A stereotype goblin with a patch over one eye and rotten teeth protruding from his bottom lip. Groans of torture and the whine of lost souls echoed through the dark tunnels making up the dungeons. The fetid stench of old rot and bad sanitation permeated the atmosphere almost like a living thing.
“You’ll get used to the stench,” the goblin grunted at me with glee. “It only took me two hundred years! You’ll eventually learn to love it.” He took hold of me from the guards and dragged me along the tunnels. I was frog marched by him and the guards past prison cells filled with humanoid creatures that had in some way or other crossed Bracken. They skulked in the corners of their cells, some muttering to themselves, rocking back and forth on their haunches, others sprawled out on the mucky floor, their faces riddled with despair.
“You’ll get one meal a day. Gruel on toast,” the goblin informed me. “Lovely stuff.”
“Think I’ll pass,” I told him as we moved into yet another tunnel in this maze of prison cells.
“Oh, you’ll learn to love it, fallen angel. Just like everyone else.”
We passed a cell that contained a dark elf with a gaunt face and scraggly purple hair. She was gripping the cell bars with her long, skinny fingers. Her wild eyes gleamed with insanity. As we passed, she jutted a hand out through the bars, grabbing hold of the goblin’s leather tunic. “The bells!” she wailed. “They won’t stop ringing! Make them stop! I beg you, make them stop!”
“Get down, rat!” the goblin screeched, getting out his whip and cracking it across the elf’s knuckles.
The elf wailed in agony and fell back into her cell. She clutched the sides of her head. “The bells! The bells! The bells!” she wailed to herself. “Make them stop!”
“Heed no attention to her, fallen angel,” the goblin said over his shoulder as he continued on his journey. “She’s as barmy as froobiun cake.”
I was shoved along toward the darkness at the end of the tunnel. My gaze fixed on the elf as she moaned about ‘the bells’ that most likely rung inside her head and nowhere else. Man, how long had she been locked up in here? Elves lived a long time, and time itself was skewed down here in the Underworld. A day could feel like a thousand years just as much as a thousand years could feel like a day. That’s what copious amounts of magic did to things like time and energy, messed em up good.
We left her behind and emerged into yet another tunnel. Man I was sure this place was constructing itself as we delved deeper into it. I looked over my shoulder; the tunnel disappeared into an inky darkness from where the echoes of lost groans filtered like old dust in a cellar.
“Yeah, as you can see we’re quite overcrowded at the mo,” the goblin said with a snort. “King Bracken is getting angrier and angrier in his old age.” The goblin slashed his whip across the knuckles of a goblin clutching the bars of his cell.
“Glarb!” the goblin sneered.
“Back to you with bells on!” my torturer goblin said casually over his shoulder as we passed. “Oops, don’t mention bells,” he added and erupted into hoarse laughter, yellow spittle flying from his mouth in all directions.
He eventually calmed. “But, more prisoners means more bodies for me to play with,” the goblin said, raising his eyebrows in glee.
Horrific images of being strung up while this creature took pleasure in torturing my flesh bombarded my mind. I saw hot irons branding my skin, my eyelids torn from my face, my fingernails and teeth ripped out one by one.
Oh boy...
We passed through more darkness into yet another tunnel where the goblin stopped by a cell that looked unoccupied. He peered inside. He laid eyes on the pile of straw in the corner and a mischievous grin spread across his white cheeks. He plucked a lead pipe from his belt and placed it in the gap between two of the cell’s bars. He glanced at me and winked his remaining eye, which was like getting a smile from a piranha fish. He turned his attention back to what he was doing. He licked his lips with his bruise-colored tongue and began rattling the lead pipe on the bars, creating a highly annoying noise that reverberated all around us.
“Fire! Fire! Quick, emergency! Fire!” the goblin yelled. “Fire! Fire!”
Something small jumped up from the straw wearing dirty all-in-one underwear. Fear-addled confusion was stamped all over his tiny face. He spun left and right. “Fire? Fire, ye say? Where?”
The goblin erupted into hard laughter. He grabbed his belly, his face reaching for the ceiling while that choking, broken engine laughter burst from his chest in sporadic spurts.
The leprechaun in the cell scratched the ginger hair on his head. He laid his beady blue eyes on us. His face contorted into a snarl. He jabbed a small finger at the goblin. “Ach, Fishstink, ye wee bastard. Ye had me going there!”
Fishstink? I looked the goblin up and down. Well if the cap fits...
“Fire! Come on, save yourselves!” Fishstink uttered between fits of laughter.
The leprechaun grabbed his ginger beard and pulled it down in anger. “One day I’ll get ye, ye mark me words!” he squeaked at Fishstink.
Fishstink’s laughter stopped dead. His face pinched. “Time for you to get up, Seamus, you lazy roach!” he barked. “Come and greet your new cellmate!” Fishstink jabbed my side with the lead pipe.
Seamus looked me up and down. “He’s a big’un isn’t he?”
“Yeah, so watch out he doesn’t roll over you in his sleep!” Fishstink retorted. He grabbed the biggest set of keys I’d ever seen from his belt and began rifling through them, even though they were all identical. Eventually, he found the one he wanted and shoved it in the lock on the cell door. It clanged open. He turned back to face me. “Get in.”
I was shoved from behind by a guard and I reluctantly went into the cell. The stench of ancient musk intertwined with the rotten reek of old outhouses struck me and my stomach churned.
Fishstink must have seen my discomfort as he belched out a new round of laughter. “Making yourself at home already, good to see!” He slammed the door shut behind me, the noise slashing through my mind like a guillotine.
A fae guard ordered me over to the bars. I turned away from her and she dissolved my binds. At least my hands were free. I turned
back to face them, rubbing the remnants of magic from my wrists. Fishstink was grinning. Man, I’d love to wipe that smile off that asshole’s ugly face.
“You two have fun,” he said, pouting his lips. “But, not too much fun!”
“Away with ye!” Seamus said, tapping his foot on the ground.
Fishstink erupted into more manic laughter and left, clanging his lead pipe on the cell bars as he went. The fae guards followed him and they were soon gone, Fishstink’s raucous laughter echoing away into the distance.
My shoulders dropped. I looked around my new home in despondency. It was a low-ceilinged stone chamber ten feet by ten feet. On either side were two mattresses made entirely of old, dirty straw. In between them was a hole in the ground with a metal lid covering it. One guess what that was for. From all around, the tortured groans of lost souls filled the air in a ghostly din. Depression set in hard.
I looked down at the lep, who stood no more than two feet high. He grinned at me, revealing two rows of brown teeth. “Hi, there. Fancy a wee game of eye spy?”
I grabbed my forehead. Oh boy. How was I gonna get outta this one?
I slumped down on the straw mattress that I’d be calling my bed for who knew how long. My cellmate, the lep known as Seamus, came skipping over to me. “Ooh, boyo, it’s so good to finally have a worthy cellmate. Seamus O’Hare is the name, picking pockets is me game. What would your name be?”
“Stone,” I replied glumly, my head in my hands. The little runt was already grating on my nerves and I’d barely been in his company thirty seconds.
“Stone?” he echoed, tapping his bearded chin while staring at the ceiling. Then, his eyes lit up. “Stone! You’re Gabriel Stone, aint’cha? Gabriel Stone the famous card player! You’re a fallen angel are ye not?”
A wry smile spread across my lips. “My reputation precedes me.”
“Indeed it does, boyo. Just remind me ne’er to play a hand of cards with ye.”
“That would be very wise.”
He came and sat on the floor ahead of me, cross-legged. “So, is that what ye’re in here for? Cheated Bracken in a game of cards, eh?”
I shook my head. “I don’t cheat!”
“If ye say, boyo. If ye say.”
I growled under my breath. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m in here cause of a girl.”
Seamus slapped his thigh. “Women! The scourge of men from here to John O’Groats and beyond! Bracken’s mistress was she?” His eyebrows danced up and down like red caterpillars. “Eh? Stole her from him, did ye?” He nudged me with his elbow as he spoke. “Heh-heh. Come on, spill all the sordid details. I could do with a good smutty story. Don’t get much action down here!”
“It wasn’t anything like that, perv. It’s his daughter.”
Seamus flinched back like he’d been slapped. “Uh! Ye had it away with his daughter? Ye sly devil!”
Irritation jumped up inside me like an unreachable itch. “Look! Will you go over to your side of the cell and leave me in peace. I’m not having a good day.”
“Ye can say that again, boyo. And it doesn’t get any better from here, trust me.”
Despondency plunged into my heart. This guy was gonna drive me nuts before I starved to death. He was sitting there ahead of me like a mini nightmare, his eyebrows dancing, his beady blue eyes working me. I groaned and grabbed my forehead. My life sucks!
“Gabe!” a voice spoke in my mind. I moved my hand away and looked around, that voice still humming in my mind like a beehive.
“Gabe! Can you hear me?” Aurora. She was using ESP to contact me from wherever she was all the way up in that Jade Spire. Man, the powers she inherited from her pops were pretty potent, just raw.
“I’m all the way up here and you’re all the way down there. This is all so crazy. My head’s in a spin.”
Your head’s in a spin?
“My father is demanding that I stay here and learn to use my magic skills properly if I’m to become queen one day. He refuses to listen to reason. I can’t convince him you’ve done nothing wrong.”
Wonderful...
“I won’t give up though. Hang in there. I’ll try my best to help you in any way I can.”
Great, you can start by getting me a new roomie!
“What’s up with ye, boyo?” Seamus asked with a frown. “Hearing voices are ye? Well, that’s normal around here.”
“Stay strong, Gabe!” Aurora added and then her voice petered away into the caverns of my subconscious. I released a long, tired breath. Looked like Bracken really had it in for me. And that stubborn old goat was like a dog with a Frisbee, he just wouldn’t let it go.
“A wee bit of advice for ye, boyo,” Seamus said, getting up to his feet and stretching his small limbs. “Forget about her. Ye’ll only drive yerself crazy if you don’t.” He turned away and headed back to his bedding. “Trust me, she isn’t worth it!” He added before he threw himself down on the straw and grabbed big handfuls of it, covering his legs. “Dinner will be along soon. That’s something to be cheerful about. Should be boiled entrails with onions tonight!” He yawned, stretched his arms and then lay down on his bedding. “Wake me up when it arrives.” In the next second, he was asleep, his pig-like snoring reverberating all around me.
I stared longingly out into the tunnel beyond the iron bars holding us in. I needed to get outta there. Beelzebub was still at large; it was only matter of time before he worked out both the Gauntlet of Agony and Aurora were down here and he’d come rushing in all guns blazing. I gazed at the stone ceiling and prayed, prayed that Aurora could somehow get Bracken to change his mind and let me go. It was my only hope.
*****
I raised up my fist, Seamus doing the same, his tiny fist inches from mine.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Sure,” I said.
“Okay. Go.”
We both slammed our clenched fist down on the air. “One, two, three!” we said in unison.
I kept my fist held up, while Seamus raised his first two fingers in a ‘V’, denoting scissors.
He gazed at my closed fist with eager eyes.
I gave him a shrug. “Sorry, buddy, rock beats scissors.”
“Fiddlesticks!” Seamus sneered, punching the air.
I blew out my cheeks in exasperation. Yeah, that’s how bored I was, playing rock-paper-scissors with a leprechaun.
“Play again!” Seamus demanded, his face as red as his beard. “This time I’ll win!”
“Oh come on, Shay,” I groaned, bored beyond my imagination. “We’ve played twenty frickin’ rounds in a row!” My head dropped between my shoulders, suddenly feeling like it weighed a ton. Man, things were bad down there. The place stunk, the food stunk, the constant wails and groans of the other inmates were unbearable, and nothing about it all ever changed. Ever.
Fishstink had already been by to gloat at us both. Man, I’d like to wrap his whip around his throat and throttle him hard. Asshole. The food came in and I looked at it like it was a dead sewer rat. No way I was gonna eat that crap, so I gave it to Seamus, who gobbled it up with glee.
“One more game, fallen angel,” Seamus begged. “Just one more, I promise.”
Man, I couldn’t put up with his constant moaning, so I caved. “Okay, one more,” I said, pointing a stern finger at him. “Just one!”
“I promise it’ll be the last, and I’m gonna win this time!”
Yeah right... With a sigh, I held my fist up on the air again. We were about to begin, when a clang followed by footfalls stopped us. We both turned our heads toward the bars of our cell. A fae guard came into view followed by a young girl in a long green cloak. On her head was a small tiara made of elven jade. She stared at us both with her bottle-green eyes.
“Aurora!” I gasped.
Aurora stopped ahead of our cell and turned to face the guard she entered with. “Leave us,” she ordered.
“M’lady, the king said we mustn’t—”
“Never
mind what the king said!” Aurora snapped. “When he’s not around, I give the orders.”
Way to go, Aurora!
“Now leave us.”
“Yes, your highness,” the guard said with a bow and scurried away, leaving Aurora alone with us.
I stared at her open-mouthed. I looked her up and down. “You’re looking...very green,” I noted.
“So, this is the lassie ye got yerself all worked up about, eh?” Seamus said, cocking his head toward the cell bars. “Pretty.”
“Can it, Seamus!” I said and darted over to the bars. “Aurora, listen—”
“No, you listen, Gabe,” she interrupted. “Once my father finds out I’m down here, he’ll have those guards drag me away.” She squatted down and looked over her shoulder to make sure the coast was clear. “My father is insistent that I stay here and learn magic.”
“Have you told him about Beelzebub?”
“No, it’ll only make him go even crazier with his protectiveness. You’ll have to take care of him.” She shook her head. “I can’t get you out of here, but I’ve brought something that might help.” She reached into her cloak and pulled something out. She had another check over her shoulder, then pushed it through the bars. I glanced down. My eyes lit up. My Deck of Death was in her hand.
“Nice work,” I gasped, snatching the cards from her and stuffing them into my pocket.
She shook her head. “I couldn’t get Bam Bam or Excalibur down here without being noticed.”
“That’s okay,” I said. “This should be enough to get me outta here and back on the hunt for Beelzebub.”
“I hope so.” She gave me a pleasant grin.
“So how’re things up in the Jade Spire?” I asked.
She shifted her head from side to side. “Strange. Scary. Fascinating. All at once. Father’s put me under the tutorage of his top mage.”